


Mood of the Day

by sidsaid



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternative Universe - Modern Setting, Basketball, Basketball AU, F/M, Guilty Consciences, NBA, NBA offseason, NYC to DC, Oral Sex, Reylo - Freeform, Smut, Spring, a train journey, ben hits on his seatmate, ben sports agent, finn and ben are basically brothers, finnrose - Freeform, g-league, kaydeldopheld, mention of past therapy, past references of reyhux, regular ole sex lmao, rey advertising exec, some dirty talk, some past angst, 그날의 분위기
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-09-29 23:08:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 30,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17212583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sidsaid/pseuds/sidsaid
Summary: Advertising exec Rey Johnson embarks on a business trip to DC less than twenty-four hours after her life has unraveled. What she doesn’t need now is the unwanted attention of ex-basketball player and sports agent Ben Solo, who much to Rey’s chagrin, is her seatmate for the journey down.





	1. Day 1

**Author's Note:**

> I’m going to start by saying that I know very little about basketball (apart from my friend’s sports ramblings on twitter, and watching like max 30 minutes of my brother playing 2k). If there is any lack of logic in my story choices, well leave me alone, I tried my best. I have made some creative choices/liberties, though mostly everything basketball related is based on my research and is legit (fight me, I dare you). 
> 
> This fic is inspired by my appreciation of the Korean movie Mood of the Day (그날의 분위기). I recommend watching it if you enjoy cheesy romance movies. Now, while I don’t know anything about the NBA, I do have a PhD in Korean romance movies. 
> 
> This story is written, so I’ll upload the chapters over the next week as I edit them.  
> Please enjoy.

 

‘Look, Armie, I’m sorry. I’ve tried so hard to work through this, but you haven’t helped at all.’ Rey responded, trying to keep the agitation out of her tone. This was the third time that she’d had to say these words, and the fifth call that she’d had to pick up.

Armitage was trying to bargain with her and Rey closed her eyes, trying not to fall into his trap yet again. She wouldn’t cry again, not after she’d spent the previous afternoon bleary eyed as she packed all of his stuff into a box, trying not to dwell too much on seven years’ worth of memories. Seven years’ worth of photos, gifts and pain.

‘I told you yesterday, Armie.’ Rey swallowed, and she rubbed at her forehead. The clothes she had chosen for the day were laid out on her bed, patiently waiting for her attention.

‘You can’t just pack up all of seven years and pretend it didn’t happen over a cup of coffee, Aurelia.’ Armie bit back.

Rey grit her teeth. The phone against her ear felt exponentially hotter so she swapped sides, thinking of all the things she could possibly say to her ex-boyfriend to make him leave her alone.

‘You know that’s not what I’m doing, Armitage.’ She walked the length of her bedroom, stopping beside her vanity and leaning on her hand. ‘I just can’t do it anymore. I’m tired, I’m tired of how unhappy I feel, and I can’t let this go on any longer.’

She heard his intake of breath, and it wasn’t shock that followed, but clear disdain. His classic status. ‘Are you saying I made you unhappy? Oh, so you were just stringing me along for seven years, even when I made you unhappy the entire time?’

‘For fuck’s sake,’ Rey groaned. ‘Do you really think that’s what I meant?’

‘It sounds exactly like what you meant. Did I mean nothing to you, really?’ There was a cold edge to his voice and Rey knew that he was already calculating his next words, words that he would use to try and hurt her as he always did.

For years their relationship had felt like Rey had been walking on a tightrope. It was balancing his temperament with her own, and it was always a clash, yet Armitage always came out the winner, because he was willing to hurt her to win. She never could. Rey could never bring up what made them similar—their abandonment issues and empty childhoods—as some sort of support that their relationship could find a structure around, but Armitage would always, and without fail, use it as a means of belittling her in his anger. And she forgave him, over and over. She forgave him because she knew him—he was just angry, and she was unwanted by everyone but him. While the years had done them no favours, it had at least brought clarity to Rey and now she knew that they couldn’t stay together. He was her poison, and she was nothing but an object to fill the void where his mother should have been.

‘Armitage, I’m going to be late to work. I have given you back your things and I have said everything to you that I wanted to say. Please, I beg you, please stop calling me.’

‘Aurelia!’ he barked over the line and Rey brought the phone away from her ear. ‘Do not hang up, we still—.’

Rey dropped the phone onto her bed, taking a deep breath before she reached for the clothing that rested on it.

‘It’s like taking off a band-aid, just like Kaydel said,’ she murmured to herself.

Pulling the maroon material over her head gave Rey a moment’s reprieve, and she felt some comfort in being swallowed by the soft cotton. The light from the sun became dulled within her newest refuge and she willed herself not to cry over something that had been broken for a long time.

Even if it had been what she wanted, Rey knew that to detach herself from someone who had been so fully involved in her life, was not simple.

She looked in the mirror for a moment and shook her head.

The dress had been a gift from Armitage.

Rey hadn’t thought to include her own clothes in the purge of Armitage Hux from her apartment and so she swung open her closet, pulling dresses, shirts and skirts from the railings. He had bought her so many things and Rey had always been under the distinct impression that rather than it being a kind gesture or even a means of an apology, it had been a way of him controlling her, possessing her by dressing her.

Her lips rubbed together as she looked down at the clothes covering her bed and she groaned as she pulled the deep red dress from her body.

She was late, and she had a business meeting in DC at 2, yet here she was struggling to find something to wear.

Rey pulled out a navy wrap-around dress and looked at it warily, knowing that she hadn’t worn it in years. She pulled it over her shoulders, tightly tying it at the side and adjusting the neckline to cover her cleavage appropriately.

The tell-tale buzzing of her phone went off then, and she groaned as she cleared her bed with a few heaving pushes, letting all of Hux’s so-called gifts fall to the floor in a huge bundle.

‘Hey Kay.’ Rey started, her eyes looking to her closet again for a pair of shoes.

‘Don’t bother looking for a pair of shoes in that godforsaken closet of yours.’

Rey paused, wondering whether her friend was psychic or stalking her, and she took a quick sweep of the room before she went digging around in the bottom of the closet again.

‘Well I can’t go barefoot, can I?’ she questioned.

Kaydel groaned, and Rey knew the woman was definitely rolling her eyes. ‘I’ll bring you some appropriate shoes. I won’t have you going to a meeting with _Flux_ in your flats, Rey.’

Rey frowned heavily then, her fingers hooking into her favourite flats and pulling them out, coming to the realisation very quickly that Hux had also bought her these, even if that had been due to Rey putting them on a Christmas list several years prior.

‘Well it’s your lucky day, Kay, they are going to charity. As well as half of my wardrobe.’

There was a moment of silence on the other line and then Kaydel clucked her tongue. ‘You’re really getting rid of all of him, Rey?’

She hummed an affirmative and dropped the flats on top of the pile of clothes.

‘I can’t tell if that is a good or bad thing considering her taste in fashion.’

Rey heard the male voice in the background and then there was the sound of a slap connecting with a bare arm and a loud ‘ow’.

‘Am I on speaker?’ Rey asked, not having the energy to feel annoyed at all.

There was some more shuffling around, a giggle from Kaydel and then a cleared throat. ‘Sorry Rey, not on speaker, just Dopheld with his creepy keen sense of hearing and lack of manners.’

‘Sorry, Rey!’ Was shouted from some distance and Kaydel laughed again.

‘Never mind him Rey. Just come to work, I’ll sort you out with a nice coat and a wonderful pair of shoes that I stole from that shoot I told you about last week.’

Rey huffed, but nodded. ‘Fine, though I still think you should take them back.’

‘No way, and you’ll need a whole new wardrobe anyway.’

‘Bye Kaydel.’ Rey said, giving up and pulling out her pair of white chucks.

‘Bye, my love. See you in half an hour.’

Rey looked at her phone for a moment, noting that a missed call notification had popped up while she had been speaking with Kaydel and it did not surprise her that it was from Armitage. She cleared it and put her phone on silent, thinking that for the time being, perhaps that would be for the best.

Grabbing her handbag, coat and keys, she took off for the twenty-minute walk to the office, with a short herbal tea pitstop on the way. At least hoping that a peppermint tea with a generous helping of honey would help settle her disgruntled spirit and get her mind pitch-ready by three o’clock.

**XxX**

Ben bit his tongue as he faced the stare-down of the millennium from his boss, the generally feared and hated CEO of _First Order Sports_ , Tobias Snoke. The man’s eyes dropped to the paperwork in front of him and he tossed it at Ben then, leaving him to kneel down and pick up the sheets of paper that scattered across the plush grey carpet.

It didn’t matter that Ben was the most capable agent working in men’s basketball at _First Order_ , nor did the sheer amount of revenue that Ben brought in, as well as talent. The past, whether recent or not, did not matter to Tobias Snoke and Ben had to grin and bear it. He had been doing so for five years now, and he’d gotten real good at, at least holding in his anger until he got to his desk.

‘I gave you a month to get the papers signed, so why am I still waiting?’ Snoke said, sneering at Ben. He looked about ready to launch a paperweight at him next.

‘Sir, I’ve only just figured out his whereabouts, it’s the off-season so I—.’

Snoke laughed, the sound dry and full of choking coughs. ‘Are you suggesting that the off-season is a break? When you know good and well that this contract has been up in the air for months.’

Ben nodded. ‘I apologise. I wanted to—.’

‘Do you think you owe him something? Because you were friends before he was signed here? Or, perhaps,’ he leant forward, smirking at him. ‘I owe you something because you brought him here in the first place?’

‘No sir, it’s not like—.’

A hand slapped hard onto the mahogany desk and Ben barely resisted the twitch in his shoulders. ‘You’re going to go to DC and you’re going to get him to sign.’

Ben gave a curt nod as he straightened his shoulders. ‘Yes, sir.’

‘Go.’

His legs were already leading him out of the large glass door, out of the office that Ben had always hated for having too many windows. His tan brogues echoed down the long and empty corridor towards Snoke’s assistant, Bazine’s desk, and without even a glance her way, he kept walking, snaking through the large building until he reached the emergency stairway.

Ben stopped there, taking several deep breaths and feeling his knuckles flex and become fists involuntarily. He almost punched the concrete wall with his right, when he glanced down at it, seeing the white scarred skin from years of steady abuse and he dropped it down again. His anger eventually dissipated as it always did, aided by the silence of the stairway and the few breathing exercises left over from years of therapy during his early twenties. He’d had worse. There would always be worse than tossed paper and empty threats. Snoke couldn’t do without him and Ben knew that at the very least.

He started down the two flights to his office and hastily packed up his satchel, collecting the copies of the unsigned contract and his chromebook before checking his coat pockets for his phone and wallet.

‘You sure you’re in the right mindset to go to DC?’ Poe murmured from behind a cup of coffee, a smirk clear across his mouth despite his attempt to hide it.

Ben glanced up, grinding his teeth as the man leaned against the door jamb. ‘I think I can survive a four-hour train journey.’

‘I didn’t mean the journey so much. It was more the avoiding the entire District of Columbia thing that I was talking about.’

The quick-to-anger man closed his eyes as he pulled on his coat, grabbing it from the stand beside him. ‘Just leave, Poe.’

‘You’re not going to visit your parents? Your uncle, even?’ Poe added, and he was grinning outwardly now.

‘Fuck off, Poe,’ Ben said, brandishing as intimidating of a smile as he could manage.

Poe put up his free hand defensively and pushed off from the door with a shrug. ‘I’m just saying man, you always make it out like they were the worst years of your life, but I think leaving was the biggest mistake you ever made.’

Ben, rather than answering, pushed past the man, knocking some of the coffee onto Poe’s tie as he passed, gaining an annoyed ‘dude’ in response and he let it follow him out of the door and towards the elevators.

All he had to do was get these godforsaken contracts signed and it should have been simple. It should have been the easiest thing, but Ben was still at a loss as to why his idiot of a friend was on the run—from him, he might add—and doing so in his hometown.

He pulled the satchel tighter over his overcoat and slinked into the elevator, pressing the G button with far more vigour than necessary, and rolling his eyes as he looked at the state of disarray his hair had become in between leaving Snoke’s office, and entering the elevator.

**XxX**

‘Are you fucking serious, Kaydel?’ Rey asked, ready to bludgeon her friend with the shoes she had just handed to her, all boxed with a pretty bow.

Kaydel clucked her tongue and took the box from Rey’s hands and looked over the heels with the fondness of a mother. ‘They are beautiful Rey; don’t you dare say a mean thing about them.’

‘They are five inches, Kay. I can barely walk in three, so do you want me to die? I’ll take one step out of the office and land on my nose.’

The blonde woman rolled her eyes and took a seat at the edge of the desk, attempting to pull on the shoes herself, but not succeeding due to her swollen feet. Rey pitied her for a moment, knowing that Kaydel loved shoes beyond what Rey considered humanly logical, and she took the shoes back from her friend’s hands with a groan.

‘I hate you so much Kaydel Mitaka. I hate you.’

Rey pulled on the skyscraper height heels as Kay grinned. She stood with her legs shoulder width apart and her arms out for balance, waiting several beats before standing up straight and trying to get her bearings doing so.

‘See! They are comfortable, aren’t they?’

The brunette faked a laugh. ‘Maybe for the next twenty seconds.’

Kaydel sighed and pushed herself off the desk. ‘What can you expect. You work in sports advertising long enough and all you want to wear are sports bras, leggings and a pair of Jordan’s.’

‘Comfort above all else, Kaydel,’ Rey murmured, carefully moving over to her desk and gathering her things into her handbag.

‘Do you at least like the coat?’ Kaydel questioned, her frown indicating that she was feeling rather put out.

Rey pulled on the pink coat, grateful that it fit well and did work better than the coat she had worn to work. ‘I like that it won’t be a source of my own suffering and pain. Thank you for that gift at least.’

Kaydel grinned and stood. ‘Now remember to keep hydrated and keep that mind alert. Do not answer any phone calls from anyone except me and grant yourself at least ten minutes of meditation on that train journey down.’

The young woman nodded several times and grabbed her bag. They were about to leave her desk together when Rey’s desk phone began to ring, and she gestured for Kaydel to go ahead as she picked up.

‘Hi Amilyn.’

‘Rey, I’m glad I caught you before you left. You know that Calrissian store deal that Snap is negotiating right now?’

She hesitated for a moment before answering, ‘yeah?’

‘I want you to take the reins and close it. The agency is being a bit fiddly with the details and the general availability of the athlete and I know that you’d be better at handling it.’

Rey frowned, her bag dropping from her shoulder and back onto the desk again. ‘That’s men’s basketball, Amilyn. I don’t have any weight in the NBA or G-League, I’m not sure—.’

‘Is that modesty or a lack of confidence I hear?’

‘No, just I—.’

Amilyn chuckled lightly and Rey took a breath. ‘Snap’s not getting any feedback from the agent, and I think he might have even blocked his number, so I’m asking you to use your usual charm and finish this up. Get them to sign and we can get the ball rolling, preferably by the end of the month.’

‘I’ll do my best,’ Rey responded, trying not to let the fact that it was mid-May get to her, nor the fact that she barely only knew about this project from team update meetings.

‘Amazing to hear. His agent is at _First Order_ —Ben Solo. You probably don’t know him since he’s in men’s basketball, but at least you’ll get some skin in the game after this.’

Rey blocked the microphone on the phone as she sighed. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow, Amilyn.’

‘Good luck on the pitch, Rey!’

Her boss hung up soon after and Rey put her own receiver down, pulling her bag onto her shoulder with another disgruntled sigh.

Ben Solo. Another ass-hat men’s athlete agent, and for the most lucrative sport in the USA.

Another reason to want to set this whole week on fire.

**XxX**

Rey made it all of 200 metres down the street when she felt her feet begin to scream for the sweet release of death. She didn’t expect any less and so rather than walking the mile to Penn Station—which she could have done in any other pair of shoes—she hailed down a taxi and settled down in one of several waiting rooms in the station, a fresh peppermint tea and her tablet in hand.

Finn Abrams. Star player of the Chandrila Jaguars and the current face of the G-League. It was unsurprising that the Calrissian family wanted him to be the poster boy of their thirty-four stores that stretched across DC, Maryland and Virginia. He was an inspiration and an example of talent and determination winning out despite adversity. Though, as Rey flicked through the articles surrounding the basketball player, it seemed that the biggest question was where he was going to start the next season. It seemed like half of the NBA teams on the west coast had made offers on him, but his fate was still undecided.

She sighed as she glanced through his Wikipedia. He wasn’t unlike herself. A broken home, foster care and then eventually going it all alone. Even though the story wasn’t rare in the sports field, it was still one that dredged up a past that Rey didn’t like thinking about.

When the announcement rang for the 11:02 Silver Star service to DC, Rey put her tablet away, pulled her bag over her shoulder and drank the last of her tea before depositing into a nearby trash can. The platform was a short walk and she glanced at her ticket to check what car and seat she’d be in. Thankfully it was a table with a window seat.

The train wasn’t very full, though there were five stops in between New York and DC, so she closed her eyes and prayed that she wouldn’t be granted with a seat mate, at least for a stop or two.

Unfortunately, this act of benevolence from the gods was not bestowed upon her, as once Rey reached her seat, she noticed that the aisle was already taken up by an excessively large man in a grey suit, who was texting furiously on his phone, his bag and coat already tucked in the overhead.

She took a breath as she approached, trying not to outwardly seethe as she stopped just in front of him and cleared her throat.

**XxX**

Ben noticed the red heels before he heard the cough and due to him considering the unreasonably thin ankles a gracious gift from god, rather than immediately look at the woman trying to attract his attention, his eyes took a generous scale of her tan skin. His eyes drifted up her sculpted calves, to the small gap of thigh before her navy skirt and then to the glimmer of cleavage where the two slips of dark blue material met at her small bust.

He was smiling wide by the time he looked into her face and then he felt his ears heat at the look of pure annoyance that she already wore pasted there. Ben was exceedingly amused considering he hadn’t even spoken and she seemed to already have a bone to pick with him. That and the fact that even though she had the legs of a goddess, they didn’t exactly light a candle to her face. Her face seemed carved from mother of pearl, luminescent and ethereal.  Her eyes were the perfect shade of green and Ben found himself fidget at the idea that she had approached him at all.

‘That’s my seat,’ she murmured, gesturing to the empty place beside him. His grin widened.

A gift that he was not going to waste.

**XxX**

Rey could not say that the ten seconds in which the man seemed to be saving every inch of her exposed body to his memory bank, were especially enjoyable. In fact, she was feeling the pain in her feet again which added to her annoyance that she didn’t have a table to herself.

It was after the ten seconds—when she finally spoke up—that she regarded the man with her own generous inspection. He was handsome, she supposed. Practically the opposite of Armitage with his large frame, dark hair and full lips. In fact, it was the size of the man that Rey backtracked on, knowing that this surely wouldn’t be the most comfortable journey if he was looming beside her. The possibility of a stray knee or elbow hitting her seemed rather likely and Rey groaned.

‘Ah, I see.’

He moved to get up then, and Rey saw the real height of him. Though she had added a fair few inches to her own height with the heels, he still breached hers and then some. It looked as if he were almost double her size and Rey’s brow furrowed as she watched him pull the rest of his body out of the seat and let her through.

She quickly pulled her coat off and tossed it beside his on the overhead luggage rack and then squeezed around the table, placing her bag beneath her feet and slipping her phone onto the plastic surface.

When he moved back to sit beside her, pulling a hand through his hair and giving Rey a glimpse at the lobe of an ear that stuck out quite a fair bit, he settled back down, his legs stretching far out in front of him and accidentally hitting hers.

 _And so it begins_ , Rey thought, wondering—considering how her week had gone so far—why she couldn’t have at least had this one thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> In case you wanted to know, here are some random tidbits of research info:
> 
> \- Ben and Rey are travelling on the 11:02 Silver Star 91 [Atlantic Coast] Service from Penn Station, NY to Union Station, DC. The journey is about 3hr 45 minutes. It apparently goes between 10 and 55mph most of the way, though it has a max speed of 79mph.
> 
> \- For non-US citizens (of which I am one), the NBA G-League [Named G, because it's sponsored by Gatorade right now, lol] is a sort of developmental/minor league for the NBA. Many G-League teams are affiliated with an NBA team, so you can easily get confused considering the Nets could technically cover both the Long Island Nets (G-League) and their affiliated NBA team, the Brooklyn Nets. As of now, there are 27 teams in this league. I have taken liberties and made up a new team (Chandrila Jaguars), as I didn't want to use Capital City Go-Go, because their name is ridiculous.
> 
> \- In regard to Sports agencies. They manage the contracts on behalf of athletes (as would any agent in any other industry). Basketball agents can't take more than 4% of contract fees, because they are usually insanely high. This means an agent has really got to negotiate for the highest amount possible out of sports teams. They can take 10-20% of endorsement contracts, though. So thanks Nike...?
> 
> Also adding that I am a hardcore Dopheld/Kaydel stan (idc if this pairing literally doesn't exist anywhere). They are indeed married and with child. HUSH.
> 
> P.S Chapter titles are named after HONNE songs :) Please listen to them


	2. Warm On A Cold Night

Ben glanced over at the woman beside him, trying to get a read on her before he initiated any conversation. She seemed set on looking out of the window and watching NYC pass at a relatively low speed, only glancing down at the cell phone that sat on the table when it lit up with a call from a ‘Taj’ which she promptly swiped reject on.

She didn’t seem to notice his attentions or was possibly ignoring him and Ben refrained from taking that as a kick to his ego. It had been approximately two weeks since he had hit on a girl, so he might have been getting rusty.

Deciding on a fresh approach, he stood up again and reached for his satchel. He’d picked up a sandwich for the journey and pulled it from the bag, dropping it down on the table to attract her attention. Her eyes passed over it before she looked back out of the window and Ben sat down again.

He peeled the front off and before he reached inside, he held the packet out to her.

‘Do you want to share, you look like you might have skipped breakfast?’

Rey glanced back at him, meeting his eyes and raising an eyebrow in suspicion.

‘Why would I share a sandwich with someone I don’t know?’

Ben smiled easily then, his hand not dropping. ‘What do you mean? We’re seat mates, we’ll potentially be spending the next three and a half hours together.’

Her frown persisted, though she couldn’t say that she wasn’t hungry. It was past eleven and she’d usually have had a muffin in her by this time. She was still running on the noodles she had cooked at 3AM, drowning her sorrows in salt and nutrition-less junk food.

‘I don’t mind,’ he insisted, and Rey relented, reaching for half of the Chicken BLT.

She waited for Ben to take a bite first, before she followed his lead, munching swiftly on the sandwich with satisfaction.  

Ben watched her eat with amusement. She ate like the sandwich was the best thing she had tasted in years.

‘So, where’s your stop?’ Ben asked, swallowing down a mouthful.

Rey took another large bite of the sandwich, chewing it with fervour before she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and leaned back into her seat.

‘DC. You?’

He grinned, though he was very aware that he shouldn’t have by how her brows met together. ‘Me too. Business or pleasure?’

‘Business,’ she answered. ‘I have an afternoon meeting,’ she found herself adding unnecessarily. Her phone went off again and she rejected the call once more.

‘No calls while you’re in business mode, then?’ he questioned, his eyes glancing at her cell phone.

Rey’s mouth flattened into a line and she breathed steadily through her nose. Her eyes glanced behind her when she heard the pneumatic doors of the carriage open and a trolley be pulled across the partition.

‘Just my boy—my ex-boyfriend being a nuisance.’ She glanced at a text notification and then looked back at the remaining vestiges of sandwich in her hand. Rey popped the remaining piece into her mouth and chewed with some effort.

Ben considered that this was perhaps his way in and smiled, as warmly as physically possible for him, and waited for her eyes to meet his again. ‘If you want, I know a way you can get your mind off him. For good, even.’ He said easily.

Rey heard her brain tell her to shout _what?_ , though it got lost in translation and she ended up near choking on the food in her mouth and glanced around her person for something to wash it down with.

‘Anything from the trolley?’ The trolley sat just beside them, and the attendant was looking over at them both dispassionately.

‘Diet-coke, please,’ Rey managed, hitting her chest with a fist to dislodge the food from her throat.

The train attendant frowned. ‘No diet, only regular or sprite.’

‘Water? Orange juice?’

Ben just smiled with amusement as he watched the two women interact.

‘I just ran out, sorry,’ the attendant said casually.

Her coughing persisted, and Rey got up, her face red and clutching her phone, while Ben attempted to let her slide out of his way. She eventually got past, and the attendant decided then to swiftly push the trolley forward, knocking her onto the man without a second glance.

‘Sorry,’ she called back as she went, leaving Rey to stumble out of Ben’s lap, him steadying her with a large hand at her waist. She swiped it away without a word, hearing him chuckle as she stumbled on her too high heels down to the back of the carriage and to the small area that housed the toilet and some luggage racks.

As a distraction and because Rey thought for a moment that she had lost her mind, she swiped accept on the next call that came through and she was met by the breathy hello of Armitage Hux.

‘Stop calling me, Armie. I told you.’ She sighed heavily, her throat still feeling clogged.

The train pulled into Newark and Rey manoeuvred as people moved past her to exit and enter the train.

‘Rey, I’ve been thinking about what you said and I understand.’

Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. ‘Oh, you do?’

‘I get that you feel less than, but it can be a moment of learning for the both of us, we don’t have to split because of something so small.’

‘Sorry, less than?’ Rey asked for clarification.

Hux hummed in agreement. ‘I work a better job, I got better grades in college, I get it. You’ve always been chasing my coattails. That’s fine, I was always the more capable one in our relationship, so I think it will be easy for us to work through it.’

Rey grit down hard, her hand tightening on a rail beside her head, wishing that it was Armitage’s throat. ‘Are you fucking serious? You fucking know how hard college was for me.’

‘Ah, so you’re going to use that excuse again?’

‘Excuse me?’

He huffed, mockingly. ‘Your ghosts of hardship and all that bull that you continue to spout. You aren’t a child anymore, and haven’t been for years. Can’t you get over it?’

‘Fuck you.’

Rey didn’t wait to hear anymore, knowing that she would either cry or hurt herself in anger if she did. Instead she hung up and took several breaths, waiting for the train to move off again before she turned back to her carriage, forgetting for the moment that the man beside her hadn’t propositioned her in a conversation that contained less than one hundred words.

When she got back to her seat, however, the man was no longer there and a diet-coke sat on the table instead. Feeling the scratch in her throat, she cracked the can open, knowing she was a fool for doing so and clearly just egging the man on, but then the thought was momentarily forgotten as she relished the sweet beverage. She felt better already, her eyes closing as she drank back half the can in one swig.

The seat beside her filled again and when she opened one eye to look at her seatmate, he was smiling at her, a determined look in his eye.

‘You look like you had a rough time in the back of the carriage,’ he commented.  She noted he had an iced coffee in his hands, most likely from a vending machine on the platform.

Rey hadn’t realised she still looked as sour as she felt. She frowned and put the coke back down onto the table, turning slightly to appraise him directly, as if he was a storyboard ahead of a shoot that needed the closest of scrutinization.

‘Are you hitting on me?’

Ben grinned, his eyes narrowing lightly in incredulity. ‘Here was me thinking that your accepting the diet-coke was you accepting my advances too.’

Rey’s mouth dropped open and she didn’t miss how his eyes dropped to her lips and he barely resisted the temptation to lick his own. The man wasn’t joking, and Rey was simultaneously disturbed and impressed by his sheer candidness. If she were someone else, maybe someone easily convinced or impulsive, perhaps she would have already taken him up on his offer, followed him into the tiny bathroom in the back of the carriage and have had him fuck her against the sink. And Rey couldn’t doubt that a good fuck would definitely have taken the edge off her week.

‘You can have the diet-coke back if that’s how you’re going to play.’

He smirked. ‘That’s okay. You falling into my lap was probably payment enough. It definitely improved an increasingly aggravating day.’

The hard laugh that bubbled from her throat couldn’t be contained and Rey looked at him with sheer dumb confusion. The man was insane. ‘What were the chances that they would sit me next to a pervert?’ The question was directed at the world rather than at the man.

Ben grinned and lifted his arms above his head, holding the back of his own seat. ‘I thought this was a moment where, as seat mates, we could bond over our terrible days.’

Rey shook her head, still trying to wrap her head around the man beside her. She took several more swigs of coke before she looked back at him. ‘Buddy, can I call you buddy?’

‘Call me Ben,’ he spliced in easily, a casual smile tugging at his lips.

She paused and narrowed her eyes before continuing. ‘Buddy, I’m going to be straight with you. You’re not my type and I’m going to give you some advice. Maybe read your audience a bit more.’

His arms dropped and his gaze remained fixed on her, until Rey felt her neck heat from the intensity of the molten caramel irises beside her.

‘I don’t need to be your type,’ he began rather easily. ‘I’d be happy to sleep with you regardless.’ Rey was ready to interrupt but he smiled and the words died in her throat. ‘I’ve been attracted to you from the moment I saw you and I can’t say that happens everyday, so I’d rather take my chance than waste time. Though of course, you are more than welcome to reject me, though that won’t stop me thinking about all the ways I’d have you.’

Rey swallowed, breaking eye contact. She knew her face was on fire and as was expected, her body won out and she closed her eyes at the tingling feeling deep within her stomach, that had her underwear dampening as she sat beside this ridiculous man with a wicked tongue.

She imagined she was having a fever dream. She’d cried all night and put herself into some weird porno fantasy, and she was a few choices away from being ravaged across the train table. Her hands tightened around the can, and she heard it crinkle under the pressure. The temptation of her arousal was enough to make her want to relieve herself immediately and she glanced at the man’s fingers, angry that they were so stocky, clean and attractive, just like him.

The realisation that she was a desperate fool came rather quickly, and she deduced that the shock of her break-up was why she wanted to fuck this man, more so than his promising propositions and beautiful face.

Deciding to not make a fool of herself any longer, Rey stood abruptly, grabbed her bag from beneath the chair, slid her phone under her neck and pushed past the man, trying to avoid falling into his lap again to the best of her ability. She found a free seat a few rows ahead and sat down, deciding that she would meditate as Kaydel had told her to, and ignore any semblance of vapid attraction she had for the man several seats behind her.

**XxX**

Ben couldn’t help the amusement that simmered within his chest as he watched the woman turn bright red. He could see from the fact that she hadn’t screamed at him, or even hit him, that he had struck a potential oil spring.

She was coiled tight and he just needed to slowly release the pressure.

He felt the tell-tale buzz in his pocket and the train pulled into Trenton Transit Center. Sliding from his seat, he took the call, nothing but amused as he saw the woman have to move around the carriage as people got on and found their allocated seats.

‘What do you want Poe?’ Ben answered, the annoyance not being as palpable as usual, considering he was busy watching this woman be shooed out of seats across the carriage.

‘You don’t want updates on your guy?’ he questioned.

Ben raised a brow and leant an elbow against the back of a nearby seat. ‘What kind of updates?’

‘They’re speculating he’s gonna go to Japan or China.’

The man held back his laughter and rolled his eyes. ‘He’s not exactly excited to go to LA and the press are suggesting he’s going to fly to Asia?’

Poe sounded as if he were shrugging and irritatingly, Ben could see it in his mind’s eye. ‘I’m just giving you the PR downlow.’

**XxX**

Rey stood yet again as a group of men, clearly tourists, looked down at her as she sat in another four-seater and she frowned, getting up again and grabbing her things. This really wasn’t her day.

She looked back at her actual seat to see the man—Ben—talking on the phone with a look of barely there annoyance. He glanced at her and his lips quickly quirked into a smile, and he leaned on his elbow on the edge of the seat, seeming to call her over with the look.

There weren’t anymore empty seats and she decided to just move to another carriage, feeling petty enough to barge past him down the train rather than walk up the train without incident.

His brows rose as she approached, and she shouldered him out of the way, hearing him chuckle as she continued past him.

‘I’ll find Abrams eventually. I know where he’ll be, I was just hoping that it didn’t have to come to this.’ Ben sighed and straightened, running a hand over his face.

Rey froze, her intuition telling her to pause and listen to what Ben was saying.

‘As long as I’ve known Finn he hasn’t been this flighty, and Snoke is pushing this. I think that Calrissian deal is on pause until we figure it out, since it can’t exactly go through if the Jaguars’ golden boy is on the opposite side of the country.’

She was torn between smiling and grimacing. It seemed like she’d happened on someone from the _First Order_ , though the fact that it was this man launched her into irritation immediately. This hadn’t been what she meant when she had asked fate to throw her a bone.

**XxX**

‘Yeah, don’t bother responding, I’ll get him to sign today and we can deal with a statement tomorrow.’ Ben murmured his sign-off and slipped the phone into his pocket, turning to find that the woman was surprisingly standing behind him. He thought he’d run her off, and yet here she was, waiting for him.

He grinned. _The charm never fails_ , he thought.

‘Finn Abrams,’ she said immediately, giving him a scrutinising glare.

‘You know it’s rude to listen to other people’s conversations,’ he answered, leaning against the chair again, a smirk lilting his lips. ‘What, are you a fan?’

Rey slipped a hand into the front pocket of her bag and handed him her business card.

_Aurelia Johnson, Executive at Resistance Advertising._

It didn’t take Ben very long to connect the name of her company and the words he had just spoken to Poe and he dropped the hand with the card down to his side, and looked at her warily.

‘You are definitely not Snap Wexley,’ he murmured.

Rey chuckled then, crossing her arms, her bag hanging from her arm and her coat wrapped up there too. ‘So you _have_ been ignoring his calls.’

‘I’ve never seen your name before...Aurelia?’ he murmured, the slight smile remaining against his lips.

She snorted then and rolled her eyes, which only made Ben’s smile widen. ‘Kaydel always suggests that I exaggerate when I say you agents are a bunch of assholes, yet the proof is right here, in front of me.’ Rey half seemed to be talking to herself, despite her holding Ben’s gaze easily.

He leaned toward her, his eyebrow raising. ‘Now that’s not a very nice thing to say about someone you want something from, regardless of whether it’s true or not.’

‘So you’re Finn Abrams agent?’ she questioned.

Ben shrugged lightly. ‘I’m not sure I should be giving you any more information.’

‘Ben Solo?’

‘Well now that’s slightly unfair.’ He scratched his jaw, his fingers lightly adjusting the hair that sat at its edge and he looked at her carefully. ‘Unless you’re a fan of me instead?’

Rey snorted, much louder than previously. ‘I can forget everything that happened previous to this conversation, if you help me finish up this Calrissian deal.’

Ben clucked his tongue. ‘I’m not sure if I can do that. You don’t exactly make a great argument for my information or help considering you called me an asshole not too long ago.’

She huffed and considered him for a moment. In that time, he slipped the card into the pocket of his slacks and smiled easily.

‘Tell you what. I shared my breakfast with you, so if you can share your lunch with me, I’ll help you out and be a little more forthcoming. Deal?’ He held his hand out for her, which Rey looked down at with great irritation.

Ben acknowledged that she was unnecessarily cute. Her constant state of annoyance was already pumping him full of pure entertainment.

Rey, instead of shaking, as he expected, pushed past him and put her coat back on the overhead rack and slipped back into her original seat. Ben followed after her with a grin and he leant back on his headrest, glancing at her from the corners of his eyes.

‘I can do you one better. I can have Finn sign the contracts himself. That’s why I’m going to DC in the first place.’ Ben murmured, the smarm leaving his voice.

‘And you’d do it in exchange for lunch?’ she questioned.

Ben shrugged his shoulders lightly. ‘I’d prefer to have the company too to be honest, and I like you, you’re no-bullshit.’

‘Are you going to ask me to sleep with you again?’

He grinned. ‘Maybe?’

She sighed, closing her eyes and knocking her forehead against the window. Her phone lit up on the table again and she was ready to throw it across the train.

‘In all seriousness, both offers still stand, though we can revisit the first at a later time.’

‘I have a meeting at three. It’ll last at least an hour.’

He shrugged again. ‘An early dinner it is then. There’s this great place, _From The Seoul_ , on twelfth street. I think you’d like it.’

Rey smirked. ‘You think you know what I would like?’ she questioned, thoroughly amused.

‘A good agent always knows how to please others,’ he answered. ‘Isn’t it the same for you, Aurelia?’

‘Rey,’ she murmured. ‘Just Rey.’

Ben adjusted in his seat, his legs stretching out in front of him again. ‘So Rey, tell me why I have worked with _Resistance_ for five years and have never heard your name before?’

‘I work with female athletes predominantly, and only a few WNBA players anyway.’ Rey all about gave up avoiding the man now. He would at least make her life a little easier and she imagined that she could tolerate him if he wasn’t hitting on her.

He nodded. ‘What’s got you on a train to DC?’

She took up the almost finished can of coke that still sat on the table and drank at the mostly flat beverage before meeting Ben’s eyes. He was patiently watching her and for a moment she considered that the expression was very becoming. It didn’t make him seem as much of an asshole.

‘There’s this Washington-based dancewear company that I’m pitching some ideas to for their new line of gear. It’s relatively straight forward at this level. I imagine you know it all from the agent side.’ She lifted the drink to her lips again.

Ben nodded. ‘What got you into sports advertising?’

‘I got tired of seeing the straight bullshit misogyny in sports advertising, so decided to do something about it.’

He chuckled lightly, liking her candid tone.

‘What about you? I’m sure that your work only feeds what must be your humongous ego.’ Rey said, still on the offensive.

‘Yes, humongous, that’s a good way to describe it.’ He answered and then he looked out the window and back at her. ‘Wait, what were we talking about again?’

Rey shook her head, barely believing that this man was real. Or he was just trying to avoid the question completely, and she tried to take a moment to read him. From her absent reply he seemed to simper and the arrogant smile he wore dissipated and she frowned, wondering why he looked so unsettled, even if it was for a brief moment.

Rather than comment on the strange aura that passed over him, she looked down at her phone and cleared several more missed calls and then flicked through her messages and emails. Ben seemed to do the same and she was ready to ask him another question, particularly about FInn Abrams, when there was a dropped call from Kaydel.

‘Sorry, I’ve just got to make a call,’ she said, slipping past the man with the same difficulty as before, though this time without falling on him, and he did not offer up an expression that would annoy her.

She dialled for Kaydel again once she reached the back of the carriage and it took far more rings than usual for her to answer.

‘Kaydel you wouldn’t believe what—.’

‘Oh sorry, Rey, it’s me. Kay went to the bathroom,’ Dopheld answered. ‘Though I’m happy to hear your woes.’

Rey chuckled and rubbed her cheek, leaning against the wall as the train trundled along. ‘Amilyn passed me the Finn Abrams case and I just met his agent.’

Dopheld laughed and Rey understood why they were together, as she heard the distant clatter of glasses and cutlery, as well as idle chatter. ‘Isn’t that Ben Solo? I used to work with him when I was at _First Order_. Cool guy.’

This time Rey laughed. ‘Cool guy?’

‘Yeah, it’s not often that you see ex-athletes become agents. He’s pretty good at his job too.’

‘Isn’t that my phone?’ Kaydel’s voice echoed from a distance. ‘Is it Rey?’

Rey, however, was eager to hear more about Ben Solo, the ‘ex-athlete’. ‘Wait, Dopheld. He played basketball?’

‘Yeah, like ten years ago.’

‘Hey, don’t leave me out of the conversation,’ Kaydel complained.

Dopheld chuckled. ‘Let me just answer Rey’s question. Have some of the hummus.’

‘Like NBA?’ Rey questioned.

Kaydel giggled and Rey could hear Dopheld chewing. ‘Almost, he played for the same team as Abrams. That’s probably how he became his agent. Known him since he was a kid.’

‘Why did he leave then?’ She realised that she was biting on her thumb nail, impatient to hear Dopheld’s answer for reasons unclear to her.

‘I don’t remember, I think he might have gotten injured?’ His voice drifted off and then there was some shuffling about.

‘Hi Rey,’ Kaydel said cheerily. ‘Who are you talking about?’

‘She met Finn Abrams’ agent,’ Dopheld interrupted.

Rey sighed, laughing to herself. Even if she was sitting at their table eating lunch with the couple, the conversation would be similarly convoluted.

‘Is he hot?’ Kaydel questioned.

‘Yeah he’s pretty hot,’ Dopheld answered.

Simultaneously, Rey groaned incredibly loudly.

‘Did he hit on you?’ Dopheld questioned, raising his voice slightly so that the microphone could catch his words.

Rey swallowed, and she glanced out of the window as the train pulled into Wilmington. ‘He’s propositioned me.’

‘He propositioned you?’ Kaydel practically screamed and then there was outrageous laughter and Rey had to pull the phone away from her ear, grimacing at the fact that her friends weren’t more shocked. Eventually they settled down and Kaydel cleared her throat. ‘You never know, it might cheer you up.’

Dopheld hummed in agreement. ‘It’s not like you’ve slept with anyone other than Armitage, maybe you’ll completely forget about him after the fact.’

‘That would be pretty impressive,’ Kaydel considered. ‘Can this be considered a treat, Rey? You haven’t let yourself have one of those in a while.’

Rey huffed, lowering her voice as people began passing her to get on and off the train. ‘Having a stranger fuck me is not a treat, Kaydel. That’s an ordeal.’

‘You’re so dramatic.’

‘I have enough things to deal with, with Armitage calling me every five minutes to neg me and then this man is interrupting my life.’

Kaydel was silent for a second and Rey could only hear the sound of knives and forks on porcelain. ‘You need an interruption. You need a hurricane, in fact you need an avalanche to sweep through your life right now and turn it upside down. Or else what would be different from how you were living last week?’

Rey’s mouth opened to respond and then she closed it again.

‘I’m going to hang up now, rather than wait for you to think up a come back and burst my eardrum. Ttyl.’

The phone went silent then. Rey’s fingers tightened around it, and she took a breath.

It had been Kaydel who had called out Armitage’s behaviour first. Even if Rey hadn’t listened for at least a year, it was still her who thought of Rey first, who let Rey cry on her shoulder at her own wedding. She was always right and Rey knew that she couldn’t simply ignore her words as if she weren’t at least partly right.

Rey felt drained and she leaned against the wall of the carriage, her head knocking at it lightly as she considered Kaydel’s words. Regardless of whatever Ben Solo had suggested to her, she hadn’t considered where she was going next since breaking up with Armitage. Not when she had spent the last seven years thinking of a future with him, no matter how idiotic she had been for considering that.

When the train set off again Rey let out a final sigh and made her way back up the carriage, noting the top of Ben’s head as she approached him and deciding that she would be civil with him for the rest of the journey at least. She didn’t need his assistance with the contract and would execute it through the correct channels.

‘I thought you’d escaped the train,’ Ben murmured as he stood to let her pass.

‘That probably wouldn’t have been a great idea if I wanted to be on time.’ She answered, settling into her seat and laying her phone down on the table.

An ex-athlete? He had the body for it, she supposed. The height and the build for a shooting guard, though Rey couldn’t help thinking that he had probably been a point guard. The man with a plan. The kind of man who always thought ahead.

Her fingers almost reached for her phone again to google the man, or at least the history of the Chandrila Jaguars, but then she decided that to some extent, that would have been an invasion of privacy.

‘Card game to occupy the time?’ He asked.

Rey shrugged and nodded, deciding that a card game was a reasonable means of being civil for the remaining hour and a half. It could also be a distraction from her keen curiosity revolving around the large man next to her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no random tidbits. LOL. 
> 
> Thanks for reading :)


	3. No Place Like Home

The pair of them rotated through playing Gin Rummy and Black Jack, interspersed with idle conversation. The amusement of the card games cheered Rey up immensely and she found herself slipping into comfortable chatter with Ben, easily answering his oftentimes awkward questions.

 _Where did she grow up?_ Brooklyn. _What was her favourite sport?_   Soccer, though she preferred watching martial arts. _Do you know any?_ 4th degree Hapkido Black Belt. Ben’s mouth had grown dry at that, and he made no comment about Rey’s amused expression at his reaction.

She’d responded in kind. He grew up in Baltimore and then DC after his mother had made Congress when he was in middle school. His favourite sport was basketball, and Rey hadn’t been surprised at all, but took a pause when he mentioned that his second favourite was fencing. He could grapple but admitted that Rey could definitely kick his ass in seconds.

Rey found herself smiling widely and when the train finally pulled into Union Station, there was a part of Rey that felt disappointed.

‘Are you really not going to take me up on my offer? The second one, I mean.’ Ben questioned, a smile toying at his plush lips.

She shook her head, thankful that he was keeping pace with her and her hobbles as they walked the platform, bags in hand and coats on. Her eyes glanced up, impressed by the sheer scale of the building and the curved ceilings. Her heels clicked noisily against the marble and she was only brought back to Ben when he touched her hand gently where it gripped her handbag on her shoulder.

‘No, I think it’s best that I don’t take you up on your offer,’ she answered eventually, her eyes meeting his.

He frowned lightly though when he dropped a hand to his trouser pocket, his smile poked through again. ‘Maybe you’ll change your mind once you’re out of that meeting.’

Rey rolled her eyes, though she was laughing. ‘I have to hand it to you, you are incredibly persistent,’ she uttered.

They had made it outside already, the line of people waiting for taxis non-existent.

‘It’s a part of the job.’

She tilted her head up lightly, as if considering whether his words were true and then she pulled the handle on the taxi that slid up beside them. ‘Bye Ben.’

‘Bye Rey.’

Rey wasn’t sure what made her look back and watch Ben get into his own taxi, but she did, and for a split second she considered whether she had made a terrible mistake. That though annoyed her, because this was the man who had propositioned her within five minutes, but then she’d also divulged enough information to him to consider their one and half hour card game a first date.

She bit her tongue and decided to distract herself with emails while fidgeting with her shoes. They never had to see each other again and Rey thought that perhaps that was for the best.

**XxX**

Ben pulled his seatbelt on and reached into his pocket again, pulling out Rey’s slightly crumpled business card. He straightened it out again and his forefinger traced the curves of her name, smiling briefly to himself.

It was a strange feeling. To feel so immediately attracted to someone wasn’t particularly out of the ordinary for him, yet for that attraction to continue past an hour was relatively impressive, and the more he thought about _Aurelia Johnson_ , the more he reflected that he couldn’t just let her go.

He’d managed to infuriate her, annoy her, and make her laugh and smile during that train journey and every expression had only increased his attraction, had made him want to get a reaction out of her repeatedly.

Slipping the card into the security of his satchel, he glanced up and out of the window beside him, the fact that he was back in DC only catching up to him now. It had been years and honestly, he was more impressed that he’d managed to hold off a visit for so long. There had only been so many excuses he could give his parents, all for the sake of not wanting to see his uncle, not wanting to be reminded of his broken dreams by a city that sat centre stage within them. This had been his home, and even after ten years in New York, he’d never feel as connected as he had to this place, and that fact still bothered Ben.

He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and scrolled through his contacts for a moment before stopping on Caluan Ematt and he pressed dial.

‘Now this is an unexpected call,’ the gruff voice sounded, and Ben deduced that the man was more amused than annoyed.

‘I can imagine you know why I’m calling.’

The man chuckled. ‘Your boy has been off the grid for a month, so I’m guessing that’s why.’

‘You haven’t seen him either?’ Ben asked, his lips folding together in irritation. Why was Finn being so frustrating?

‘Not a peep. Chewie has been doing his best making excuses, but the fact that he has missed his end of season physicals and other off-season responsibilities can only be kept from the higher-ups for so long. Your uncle—.’ Ematt cut himself off and Ben grimaced.

‘What about my uncle?’ Ben forced the words out, closing his eyes to do so.

Ematt cleared his throat. ‘He’s coming down tomorrow. He’ll figure it out then.’

‘I’ll find Finn, don’t worry.’

‘You know you should come down, it’s been a long time Ben. It’d be good to see you.’

Ben sighed, rubbing his face with his hand. ‘I’ll think about it. Say hey to Chewie for me.’

Ematt grunted a yes and Ben’s thumb rubbed circles on the darkened screen of the small device, leaning back and looking up at the taxi’s ceiling. He dialled Finn’s number for what must have been the hundredth time this month. As usual it went to voicemail and Ben put the phone to his ear again.

‘I’m in DC and I won’t say that I will find you and I will kill you, since that would get me in trouble with the law but take the sentiment as it is. When I see you, I’m going to kick your ass.’

He hung up and glanced up again, noting that more time than he had anticipated had past, and the taxi driver was pulling up to the sidewalk. Ben took out his wallet, handing the man three ten-dollar bills and sliding from the car, grabbing his satchel and heading through the entrance of the Mazza Gallerie.

**XxX**

Rey took an easy breath once she reached solid land again, thankful to be out of the windowless headquarters of _Flux_. As she had anticipated the pitch had been a breeze, so all that was left in that corner was to finalise the contracts between the client and ‘the talent’ ahead of the numerous shoots that would take place over the summer.

The May breeze caught itself in the gaps of Rey’s coat, so she pulled it tighter around her as she began to walk, feeling her stomach rumble with every step. She could have appreciated her surroundings more if it weren’t for the pain in her heels coming back with a vengeance by the time she had walked 200 metres.

She glanced up at the road sign, finding 12th Street NW familiar. The road was relatively busy, despite it being a little too early for the after-work dinner rush, so Rey quickly got tired of walking on her toes, and looked about her, searching for an appropriate place to eat. Her eyes ended up landing on a Korean restaurant and deciding that the name sat well in her mind, she pushed the door open, sighing into the gentle ringing of the door.

‘Hiya, just you?’ a voice called from the back of the restaurant. Despite the busy street outside, the restaurant was mostly empty.

‘Yes, that’s okay, right?’

A young woman, probably a few years older than Rey, slipped out from the kitchen in the back, wiping her hands on a cloth and nodding eagerly. ‘Sit anywhere you like.’

Rey glanced around and decided on a table for two situated on a slightly elevated platform that sat beside by the front window furthest from the door. The woman followed her soon after, placing a menu in her hand and smiling widely as she went to cleaning tables and assisting a couple with a young child who were sitting on the opposite side of the restaurant.

Another stomach grumble had Rey looking more eagerly at the menu and she glanced over it quickly, looking for the classic set dishes and deciding on the one that was definitely for two people. When the young woman glanced over at her, Rey sent her a smile and she approached.

‘What can I get for you?’

‘Can I have Set B with some Barley tea?’ she requested.

The woman only raised an eyebrow and nodded, flitting off to the kitchen to relay the order.

Rey pulled her tablet from her bag, doing a quick end of the day scan for any important emails and then took her phone out, thankful that there were no more missed calls, and only a message from Kaydel featuring the eggplant emoji.

Deciding in that moment that rather than doing a plain as day google search, she opened up Twitter and searched Ben Solo. There wasn’t much there, but he did in fact have a profile, much to her satisfaction. Though she realised why she was right to be relatively surprised when she saw that he hadn’t posted in a month.

She scrolled through his profile, mostly seeing retweets of photos and news updates for athletes he agented for, and of these, a vast amount were of Finn Abrams. The basketball player had a happy face and she clicked through his hashtag, impressed by the sheer amount of praise he had directed at him despite being in the G-League. Unexpectedly, he had no social media presence, not even an Instagram, so Rey was left to scroll through the search bar, understanding immediately why the Calrissian’s were so eager to get a contract with him. It was practically unheard of for a G-League player to get a six-figure solo sponsorship deal and here he was.

‘That’s my favourite photo of him,’ the young woman murmured as she approached with a pot of tea and a cup. ‘You can just see my foot in the corner there.’

Rey smiled and watched as the woman poured tea into her cup. ‘Are you a fan?’

She nodded and placed the pot down. ‘I’ve been following Finn since he was barely as high as this table,’ she grinned.

‘You grew up together?’ Rey queried, genuinely surprised that she had yet again happened upon someone who knew Finn Abrams intimately. It was a small world, she supposed.

‘Pretty much. We were in the same care home for about three years, so I’ve known him about seventeen years?’

She looked ready to move on to do other things and Rey smiled after her, some semblance of elation flowing through her with the knowledge that Finn had at least been sistered by what seemed like a nice person. Rey maintained that the foster system very much felt like brothers and sisters in arms, and she was glad it at least worked out for someone, that these people hadn’t been lost in the pipeline.

Rey sipped gingerly at the hot tea, putting her tablet away and just watching people pass by through the slightly frosted windows. It was calming, and she understood what Kaydel had meant by needing a change. Being in DC and getting out of the office made her think of things outside of her own small desk, outside of the apartment that was still filled with toxic memories, and beyond even herself. There was more she could accomplish, there was more that she could discover.

The chime of the door went as the server approached her with a plate of steamed dumplings in one hand and a variety of side-dishes balanced on a tray in the other. She laid them down in front of her. ‘One serving of dumplings, and the soup is just coming.’

She glanced over at the door and Rey saw a smile break across the waitresses’ face. Rey followed the woman’s gaze and she immediately wanted to melt into the floor and disappear.

Ben. Fucking. Solo.

‘Ben,’ she shouted excitedly. She launched herself at him and he had to drop the bags in his hands to catch her. ‘You bastard, how dare you not visit for so long.’

He laughed and seemed thankful when she loosened her grip on him. ‘Well you still received your birthday and Christmas presents, Paige. Is that not enough?’

Paige frowned and squeezed him again. ‘It’s very hard to get Violet to remember who you are when you aren’t here.’

Rey was glad that he was distracted, and she made herself small, trying not to attract attention as she took up her chopsticks, chewing on a piece of kimchi that was far too large.

‘Paige, that’s not Ben is it?’ The shout could be heard from the kitchen and Ben immediately paled as his eyes glanced that way. ‘If it’s Ben, tell him I’m holding a sharp knife.’

‘It’s Ben, Maz, bring out your knife.’

Ben sent Paige an expression of pure betrayal, but the woman only laughed as she separated from him, and the two watched as Maz exited the kitchen. The woman was tiny and rather old, though she walked with such confidence, that Rey guessed she must have still been in peak physical fitness. She hung up her apron and hurried over to Ben.

‘You are an exceptionally rude boy,’ she murmured, though gestured for him to lean forward and accept two kisses on each of his cheeks.

Paige put up her hands and seemed to remember something and she patted Ben’s arm. ‘Let me get Violet, Maz, can you get out the rest of the set?’

Maz nodded and she patted Ben’s cheek softly. ‘You’re looking well. I can’t even see the guilt in your eyes, which is rather impressive.’

‘That’s a bit below the belt, no?’ Ben answered, trying not to frown, though failing.

The older woman shrugged and turned about, heading back to the kitchen. Ben watched after her and knelt down to pick up the shopping bags and dropped them down on the small reception desk that held the till. Rey immediately looked into her dishes as his eyes began to sweep the restaurant, but she knew he had caught her when she heard a heavy exhalation leave his mouth.

He didn’t speak first, he merely approached and sat across from her in the empty seat at her table. When Rey eventually looked up, he was practically beaming, his legs crossed beneath the chair and his arms leaning on the table.

Rey chewed on her lip, willing herself not to speak a word.

‘I never imagined you’d actually follow me,’ he admitted easily.

She frowned, leaning up. ‘I absolutely did not, especially considering I got here first.’

He laughed then, full-bellied. ‘I told you that we should eat at this restaurant when we were on the train, Rey.’

 _Shit_. The memory came back to her and Rey grimaced, realising that she had made a relatively grave error.

‘Don’t think that I’m here because I’m taking you up on your offer. I’m just hungry,’ she murmured, deciding to look at the dumplings rather than at the man sitting across from her.

Footsteps neared them, and Rey looked up to see the small old woman—Maz—carrying a tray with miso soup, a seafood pancake, a fried seafood dish and a large serving of bibimbap.

‘And here I was thinking this was all for you, dear,’ Maz murmured as she put the plates down on the table with a grin. ‘Is she your girlfriend, Ben?’

Rey closed her eyes as Ben began to laugh and shake his head.

‘This is definitely all for her, Maz.’

Maz looked back at Rey who had her eyes tightly closed and she raised an eyebrow at Ben. He was about to speak, though was stopped as he was rushed by Violet and he stood, catching her before she reached the table and knocked everything from it.

‘So you do remember me?’ Ben questioned the young girl as he swung her in his arms.

She giggled and nodded, the gap in her teeth wide as she clung onto Ben’s neck. ‘Of course Uncle Ben, I have your picture in my wallet.’

He laughed and put her down, looking at her with confusion. ‘Why my picture?’

‘It’s you, daddy and Finn.’ She clarified, and Ben nodded, his smile failing, though he warmly stroked Violet’s hair and then she narrowed her eyes at him, poking him squarely in the stomach. ‘Why have you missed so many of my birthdays? We went to the skating rink for my eighth birthday, did you know?’

He nodded. ‘I saw the pictures. I liked your dress, it was very pretty.’

‘You can’t sweet talk me. Mommy said you’d try and do that.’

Ben laughed again and straightened, pulling a hand through his hair and glancing at Paige who was giving him a pointed look as she passed the couple in the corner more food.

‘Will some presents make up for it?’ he questioned.

Violet seemed to consider this for a moment and then she nodded resolutely, and Ben made his way back to the reception desk and handed Violet one of the bags. She opened it and squealed and then she was running into the back clutching the bag and Ben could hear her distantly running upstairs to the apartment above.

Before Ben could go back to Rey, who was now staring at him with confusion, Paige stopped in front of him with a slight frown.

‘You’re looking for Finn, aren’t you?’

He swallowed and rubbed his chin with a curt nod. ‘You seen him?’

Paige sighed, holding the tray in her hands against her apron-ed chest. ‘He’s been with Rose. He’s not been responding to your calls?’

Ben shook his head, unable to hide the frown from his face. ‘I can’t make excuses for him anymore. He’s got to sign the contracts before I go back.’

‘I think you underestimate just how much convincing it’s going to take, Ben.’ Paige responded.

‘I’m sorry for taking so long to visit. I was being an asshole,’ he murmured.

She smiled and shrugged lightly. ‘Better late than never, though rather than seeing us, you should visit your parents even if you won’t visit your uncle.’

Ben huffed and Paige laughed, walking back to the kitchen and leaving Ben behind. His eyes caught with Rey’s again, whose food was still steaming, untouched in front of her. He approached again, standing by her table.

‘Mind if I eat with you?’ he questioned.

Rey nodded absently and picked up her chopsticks again.

‘The waitress said she was in a home with Finn, but you weren’t?’ She didn’t know why she had asked the intrusive question so suddenly, and her chopsticks were halted on a slice of pancake.

Ben met her eyes and he surprised her by shaking his head. He worked his mouth as if he were gearing up to say something, but he didn’t. Rey picked up a segment of pancake and chewed on it thoughtfully.

‘You don’t understand him, do you?’ she queried, trying to gauge Ben’s reaction.

His brows drew together, and Rey gestured to the other pair of chopsticks in front of him as she took a sip of her tea. He picked them up and tasted some of the seafood dish, closing his eyes as he chewed, as if reminiscing.

‘The contract you want him to sign, it would take him away from here wouldn’t it?’ Rey didn’t need to hear Ben’s response, she knew by the sigh that escaped from his mouth. She smiled wryly however, eating more of her food. ‘It’s okay. It’s hard to understand what it means to find a family.’ She looked at him carefully, resting her hand against her cheek. ‘Whether it’s good for you or not, you want to cling onto them because it’s something you’ve cultivated and desperately wanted for a long time.’

Ben didn’t respond for a moment, he merely looked at Rey and watched her slowly spoon rice into her mouth. He could see that her eyes were earnest, and he smiled briefly, looking back down at the table covered in food.

‘I suppose you’re right,’ he answered. ‘I don’t understand him, though I’ve been pushing my family away for years,’ he added with what seemed like painfully-come-by honesty.

Rey smiled lightly and continued to eat, speeding up as Ben watched her in silence. Eventually Paige reappeared with a coffee and a bowl of translucent soup and noodles for Ben.

She hugged him in his seat again and then disappeared to greet more customers as they began to slowly feed in.

‘That’s an incredible amount of food you’re eating,’ he commented casually, slurping on a spoonful of soup.

Rey noted that his expression had brightened immensely on receiving the dish and she guessed that it was a favourite of his by the small smiles that appeared as he ate.

‘I’ve got to make up for all those missed calories considering I only ate half a sandwich today,’ she answered, her mouth full of squid.

Ben grinned and nodded.

‘You said you grew up here, right?’ Rey asked, picking up her spoon to scrape at her bibimbap.

He nodded again. ‘You’ve never been?’

She shook her head and swallowed. ‘My work doesn’t often bring me this way and I guess I just never thought to visit in my own time.’ Her brows met and she glanced into her bowl again. ‘My ex-boyfriend hates the idea of being so close to the government,’ she snorted and met Ben’s eyes again. ‘He never wanted to come.’

‘Good thing he’s gone then, right?’ Ben questioned, leaning back in his seat slightly, a smirk that was wholly his appearing.

Rey narrowed her eyes at him. ‘That’s for me to say. You’re not allowed to say that.’

Ben chuckled and grabbed for more pancake. ‘Should I take you on a mini-tour as penance, then?’

‘I would like that,’ Rey responded almost automatically. Then she sighed, guessing that she really must have lost her mind.

He laughed, not expecting the sheer speed of her answer and he drank some more soup, glancing up at her as he lowered himself closer to his bowl.

The pair of them finished their meals, Rey easily moving through the array of dishes, happy that she wasn’t wearing trousers today as she inhaled the delicious meal. Ben had finished before her and watched her eat with mirth, impressed and yet also comforted by her appetite. The sheer dejection that had appeared across her face during the train journey– when he’d left her that diet coke–hadn’t returned and Ben was satisfied that he could at least do that much.

In a short amount of time, he’d come to consider Rey as someone perceptive and wholly feeling. He couldn’t forget her words when she had spoken about Finn. They were words of understanding beyond study, but through experience, and Ben had spent enough of his time with Finn, Rose and Paige to know that her early life may not have been too different from theirs. Ben therefore felt compelled to know more about her, to find out how she had gotten out. Whether she had someone who cared for her like he cared for his friends, or how his friends cared for each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Random info lmao:
> 
> \- Mazza Gallerie is a giant shopping mall in DC if it wasn't clear by the presents Ben brought back. 
> 
> \- Why Fencing? Because Lighsabers. IDK
> 
> \- Why Hapkido? Because weapons tbh. A 4th degree Hapkido Black Belt is well versed in Cane Techniques and Sword Techniques. Perfect as a slight throwback to Canon Rey.
> 
> \- I chose to have Maz be Korean (with a Korean restaurant), mostly as a throwback to the film this AU is inspired by, but also because I love Korean food and can talk about it haha. Set B was stolen straight from the menu of a restaurant I go to in London, and I chose Barley tea for Rey since it's delicious. The dish that Ben eats is Kalguksu, one of my favoured dishes. Kalguksu is made up of thick, handcut wheat flour noodles in a pale broth (probs chicken). Other ingredients/garnishes depend on the chef.
> 
> \- Maz, if this is not made clear by the story, fostered Rose and Paige after they'd been in a care home (with Finn) for 3 years. They have been with her ever since (14 years). 
> 
> \- People might be interested in ages, though to some extent they can be contextually guessed. Ben is 30, Rey is 25. I'm sure most of the rest can be guessed now or later.


	4. Til The Evening

As they left, Ben gave his goodbyes, promising to be back soon and the two wandered out into the chaotic streets of Downtown DC.

‘So, are you going to tell me about the real Ben Solo?’ Rey asked as they shifted into the back of a taxi, with the instruction to the taxi driver being to take the scenic tour and drive around until they said to stop.

He smirked. ‘Oh, I don’t think you’re ready to hear that.’

Rey frowned, though her attention went to her window, and she watched as they drove down street after street.

‘That’s the Capital One arena right across from the National Portrait Gallery.’ Ben pointed from one side of the taxi to the other and Rey pulled herself back from her nose pressing against the window. ‘I spent an inordinate amount of time in that gallery when I wasn’t playing basketball.’

She smiled to herself, noting that, that had been the first time Ben had even mentioned playing basketball, even in a recreational capacity.

They continued down, Ben pointing out specific restaurants and shops, sometimes to say a place was great, or simply to say that he was surprised the business was still open. They eventually turned onto a road much larger than the others. There was a grand columned building to the right and Rey peeked the Washington monument far in the distance.

‘Now that’s the treasury,’ he pointed, and Rey nodded. ‘And that’s just about all you can see of the White House without going in.’

Rey turned to him. ‘Got any connections for a tour?’

He laughed. ‘Were you listening to Paige? That seems like an underhand comment to try and get me to visit my mother.’

‘You know I didn’t take you for a wimp.’

‘A wimp?’

Rey nodded. ‘Scared your mom is going to ground you?’

Ben rolled his eyes, but the mirth did not leave his face. ‘I do talk to my mother,’ he murmured. ‘I just haven’t seen her in a while.’

‘You don’t want to?’ she asked, glancing up as they drew closer to the Monument.

He sighed and stroked the hair at his chin before looking back at Rey. ‘I suppose I do, but I made my excuses.’

‘I heard Paige mention your uncle.’ Rey said quietly.

Ben chewed on his bottom lip and his fingers tightened on his knees. His eyes did not leave hers, however.

‘Is he why you don’t visit?’ Rey inquired, and Ben couldn’t do anything but nod. Though Rey waited for him to say something, he did not, and she glanced back out of the window, watching the Washington Monument pass by, standing tall.

‘That’s the Smithsonian,’ he murmured.

Silence descended over them as Rey watched out of the window. Ben only spoke up again when they passed the Capitol Building and that was when Rey turned back to him, a slight frown pulling down her expression.

She wanted to say something, she wanted to understand him, and Rey wasn’t quite sure what was making her want to so desperately. Maybe she simply felt pity for him? Then the ugly thought appeared in her mind, that perhaps it was because she wanted to latch onto someone, and he had been the first to appear.

‘Can we head to Union Station,’ Ben said to the taxi driver.

The driver nodded, and Rey exhaled gently. ‘You haven’t found Finn yet, have you?’

Ben shook his head, leaning his elbow against the door. ‘I’m almost considering giving up and running away to the Bahamas.’

Rey smiled. ‘Any ideas?’

‘He’s with his girlfriend, but then they could be anywhere’

‘On a romantic excursion then?’ Rey suggested and Ben only hmphed in annoyance. ‘Must you sound so negative? There’s nothing wrong with being in love.’

‘Did it serve you well?’ he replied almost automatically.

Rey glared at him, but then she considered that he was somewhat right. ‘I was in love with a dream, which I’m going to say is different,’ she answered.

‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say that.’ His expression was filled with regret and she poked him in the shoulder to alleviate his frown.

‘So, the National Gallery and basketball, yeah?’ she started. ‘Would it be correct of me to assume then that you only know about those two things?’

Ben narrowed his eyes. ‘What do you mean by that?’

Rey shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I think I could kick your ass in a game of trivia and one-on-one on the court.’

‘You serious?’ His smile was huge and full of incredulity. ‘I’m almost double your size and you think you’d be able to beat me?’

‘I don’t remember height being the most important part of basketball.’ She scratched her chin then. ‘I’m not sure that you should be so confident. I have pretty good aim and I’m quite fast.’

He laughed then. ‘Really?’ Ben rapped his finger on the screen separating them from the driver and the man glanced briefly behind. ‘Sorry, change of plan. Can you take us to Kentucky Avenue?’

The man nodded, and Ben folded his arms across his chest, looking supremely satisfied.

‘Where are we going now?’

‘Well we’re going to test your skills of course.’ Ben said casually.

She smirked. ‘You want me to kick your ass?’

Ben nodded. ‘I can’t think of anything that would make me happier.’

Rey raised an eyebrow and looked out of the window, watching as they began to pass through residential neighbourhoods.

‘That’s my parents’ house,’ Ben said, pointing to her left at a brick building that was more mansion than house. She also couldn’t mistake seeing the basketball hoop over the garage door.

Eventually they pulled up outside a sports complex with the name ‘Chandrila Jaguars’ plastered on the front and Rey turned to him with a chuckle. ‘You want to go against me on a real court?’

He nodded, passing the taxi driver a bill and climbing out of the car. Rey followed him, almost stumbling as she straightened in her heels and grabbed for her bag. Ben approached the doors and looked back to her, waiting for Rey to catch up.

‘I’m not sure what you’re going to do in those shoes.’

Rey faked a laugh and pushed past him, elbowing him as she opened the door. He chuckled and followed her, catching her by the waist when she stumbled over the hidden dip in the floor. Rey quickly escaped his grip, feeling the back of her neck heat up at his touch, especially as the security guard looked them both over with a raised eyebrow.

‘You’re not making me very convinced you’ll beat me, Rey.’

She turned to glare at him, though was interrupted by a door opening down the hallway. A head poked out and it was a man with a huge beard and moustache.

‘Ben! Ematt said he told you to come, but I didn’t think it’d be so soon.’ Chewie said, pulling his large frame out of the door and approaching them both, a wide smile showing beneath his moustache.

Rey was surprised to see that the man towered over Ben and he held his hand out, shaking Ben’s hand roughly.

‘Did you find Finn yet?’ he questioned.

Ben shook his head. ‘Not yet, but Rey here thinks she can beat me one-on-one, so we’re here to prove her wrong.’

Chewie laughed, the sound deep and loud. ‘Is that right?

‘I have a lot of confidence in my skills,’ Rey said with a shrug. ‘Which way is the court?’

‘I’ve got to see this,’ Chewie said with a grin, shaking his head.

Ben snickered, and he continued down the hall, speeding up when they began to pass through the team photographs from over the years. Considering Rey knew exactly what she was looking for, she was quick to look for a date before ten years ago and eventually she glimpsed a young Ben Solo, his chin cocked at an angle and his arms across his chest as he stood in his team vest and shorts.

He pushed open the double doors at the end of the hallway and it opened onto a court where a few young men were milling around, casually shooting hoops and dribbling. Eyes were on them then and chattering started.   

Rey pulled at her heels, happy to be rid of them and relishing in the cool touch of the hardwood floor on her warm feet.

‘Is that Ben Solo?’

A few more murmurs were heard and an older man among them stepped forward, paused and then wandered over before pulling Ben into a tight hug and then slapping him on the back of the head.

‘Now you decide to turn up you asshole.’ Ematt grinned.

Ben laughed, rubbing his head. ‘Just for a bit, to prove a point.’

‘You’ll confuse the boys and they’ll think you’ve come to take them on. They know you’re the big leagues now.’

Rey caught Ben roll his eyes and he dropped his bag beside the edge of the court, next to the line of tiered benches that were set up. He then removed his coat and jacket, and then loosened his tie.

‘How are your boys fairing in the off-season?’ Ben asked as he rolled up the sleeves of his shirt.

Rey watched with great interest, taking a seat on the bench, removing her coat and trying not to get too distracted by the veins that lined Ben’s forearms, nor by the fact that his jacket had not exaggerated his shoulders or build in anyway. She swallowed, pretending that she didn’t feel her stomach swirl as she looked over his body.

‘Not too bad. Why? You want to go against them? You’ve got over ten years on them,’ Ematt said with a laugh.

Ben shrugged, and he began to stretch, starting with his arms, his waist and then his legs. He seemed to hesitate when he stretched the right side of his hip and it wasn’t only Rey who noticed, most of the men in the room did too.

He turned to her then. ‘Why are you sitting? I thought we were playing?’

Rey felt her skin heat up immensely. She’d only gone this far to get him to talk. He seemed to smell her trepidation and he started to laugh, holding his hand out to her.

‘No go-backs.’

She frowned and stood, flattening the front of her dress with her hands and making sure the knot was still tight at her waist. Rey stepped forward hesitantly and took up a spare basketball that had been sitting on the side-lines.

Most of the men had taken seats on the benches on the opposite side, looking supremely amused at watching a woman in a relatively short blue dress and no shoes pick up a basketball against an ex-pro.

Ben backed up until he was within the semi-circle beneath one of the hoops and he stretched his arms, crowding Rey with his large wingspan. He was smirking at her and despite Rey knowing that she should have felt foolish, she just felt liquid heat begin to pool in her underwear, the tingling of arousal rearing its ugly head. The image in front of her was unnecessarily attractive and she was distracted by Kaydel’s last message—the eggplant— and her eyes automatically dropped to his crotch.

‘Are you checking me out, Rey?’ Ben questioned.

She sent him daggers and held the basketball tightly in her grip. ‘Shut up.’

‘It’s not too late to change your mind,’ he said casually. ‘About this and the other thing.’

Rey began to dribble the ball beside her, Ben not moving to get it from her. While she preferred not wearing the heels any longer, her bare feet offered her no traction. One glance towards Ben’s feet and she guessed that his brogues probably left him in the same position as her. If she tripped him, she could probably get a few points.

He licked his lips, readying to defend the hoop and Rey grit her teeth, willing her imagination to take a backseat. Even if she couldn’t score against him, she wasn’t going to fall on her ass.

Making the decision to attempt a fake out, she pretended to move one way and Ben, clearly thinking that she was way below amateur level, moved that way while she spun around him, barely avoiding him crowding over her as she slipped past, switching her hands and nearing the hoop. Noting that Ben was almost behind her, she jumped and shot, thankful that his fingers narrowly missed knocking the ball from its goal, and it swished through the net.

‘Lucky first go,’ he said through a closed mouth, while Rey was too busy clapping with excitement.

The players sitting on the bench were clapping and shouting words of encouragement for Rey as Ben handed her the ball again.

‘That’s not going to work again. I just thought I’d tell you.’

He looked riled up already and Rey grinned, trying to file his expression away for later inspection, for completely platonic reasons.

She dribbled again, trying to keep out of Ben’s reach and he seemed to make himself bigger; his arms and legs stretching out to his limit. Rey was watching her footwork, aware that he could breach the distance between them in one stride, so instead of moving towards the hoop, she decided to jump and shoot from the three-point line, Ben a second too late. This time the ball glanced his fingers and Rey guessed that this was the reason why the ball hit the rim before it fell through the net.

‘I told you I have good aim.’

Ben was glowering now and there was laughter around the court.

‘Hey Ben, we’re out of here. Nobody wants to see you lose,’ Ematt called out.

Rey turned, seeing the men begin to file out. Most of them grabbed their bags and left through the front, subsequently bypassing the locker room. She looked back at Ben with a grin, beginning to bounce the ball again.

‘Think you’ll do better without an audience?’ she asked.

‘Don’t get cocky.’

She chuckled and began faking out where she would go, infuriating Ben more and his annoyance seemed to distract him from winning the ball from her. Eventually Rey made her move, deciding to bounce the ball between Ben’s legs and run around him. She didn’t expect him to catch up to her so quickly, though and Rey couldn’t shoot, so she found herself running around beneath the hoop, avoiding Ben and holding the ball to her chest.

After at least a minute of their cat and mouse, he started to laugh and stopped. Rey turned warily and stopped two metres away from him.

‘You want to win by cheating?’ He asked, his lips curved in amusement.

Rey pouted and tossed the ball to Ben. ‘I know I’m not going to win. It was a fluke before.’

He grinned and bounced the ball a little before jump-shooting, the ball swishing through the net and slowly bouncing away.

Rey followed the ball, kneeling down to pick it up. Ben watched her as she carried it over to the storage cage and sat down on the bench looking rather glum.

Ben stood beneath the net for a little longer, observing Rey as he chewed briefly on his bottom lip. Eventually he approached her, stopping in front of her for a moment before straddling the bench beside her and then laying back.

‘You knew I played, didn’t you?’ Ben questioned, his back against the bench, his legs on either side of it, and his eyes looking up at the ceiling.

Rey looked over at him, at his chest moving up and down and she nodded. ‘I did.’

‘Do you know why I stopped?’ he asked.

‘I don’t,’ she said, her voice suddenly small. ‘I was hoping that you’d tell me.’

Ben got up then, sitting up abruptly to meet Rey. Her cheeks were still red, and her chestnut hair had come loose from the bun at the back of her head. She slid closer to him, her breathing deepening and he watched her as she stopped, her thigh grazing his knees.

‘Why do you want to know?’ he asked, and he realised that his voice was laced with confusion.

He’d brought her here, more to impress her than to win against her, and yet she had, had her own plan too. She wanted to know who he was, and Ben didn’t understand why. He knew he still wanted to sleep with her and seeing her flushed and breathing heavily only inflated that want, yet he also felt tethered to her, that if she pulled he would follow. If she asked, he would tell.

‘I want to understand you,’ she murmured. ‘And I don’t know, my heart is telling me to ask, and I’ve always thought it was best to follow it.’

Ben snorted lightly and looked down between them, his eyes glancing at the hand that was resting against her thigh. At her short blue nails and her strong fingers, not exactly small, but definitely ill-equipped for basketball. His fingers itched to reach for hers, wanting to hold them tightly in his own, wanting to kiss every single digit and to watch as a smile bloomed against her mouth at his attention.

‘I was in a car crash,’ he began, meeting her eyes again. ‘My right side was crushed when the other car hit. Broke five ribs, my humerus, my femur snapped in half, I fractured my pelvis and my hip turned to dust. And that was my career.’

His jaw tightened as he spoke, and Rey reached out, taking his hand in hers gently and her thumb ran soothing circles over his knuckles, feeling the scarred skin beneath her touch.

‘You weren’t driving?’

Ben shook his head and breathed deeply, closing his eyes for a moment. ‘My uncle. He turned the wheel, so I got all the damage.’ He leaned back, taking his hand with him and rested both on his knees. ‘They say your coach can make or break your career and the words weren’t more poetic than on that day.’

He felt himself get angrier, and while the words continued to flow, the tell-tale pinch of tears in his eyes made Ben pull back with everything he had, trying not to even think of crying. ‘I spent every day in this damn gym since I was seven years old, because that’s what he wanted and then he turned the wheel so I... so the person he spent thirteen years running to the bone, running towards this dream, could take the hit.’ He pulled a hand through his hair, tugging on it too roughly. ‘He ruined my life.’

‘But you loved it?’ Rey murmured. ‘While you had it, you loved it?’

Ben nodded sullenly, his eyes glancing at the nets, to the benches and to the crate of basketballs beside them.

‘And don’t you still love it?’ she questioned.

He angled his jaw away and when he looked back at Rey, her eyes were holding him steadily and they were firm. They seemed to grip him tightly by his shoulders and shake him awake. Because he did. Regardless of whether he played or not, basketball was everything to him.

‘I do.’

Rey smiled warmly then, reaching forward and gently cupping his cheek, a thumb sliding against his cheekbone. ‘Then all that hard work was worth it. Even if it hurts to admit it, it will always be worth it.’

Ben reached towards his face and caught Rey’s hand in his, pulling it down. He clasped it in both of his, eclipsing the appendage completely. His expression softened, and Rey exhaled quietly.

‘I’m glad I met you today,’ she admitted. ‘You honestly kept my tears at bay, even though you hadn’t meant to. But I’ll give you credit anyway.’

He chuckled lightly and looked down, though Rey didn’t miss the tear that had come loose as it slid down his cheek, disappearing into his goatee. Rey’s eyes had followed it distractedly and she leaned further towards Ben, him noticing as the action split his legs further apart.

When he looked back at Rey, her brow was furrowed lightly, and she stood, Ben letting go of her hand as a result. His mouth opened to speak, though Rey knelt onto the bench between his legs and kissed him, halting his words.

The kiss was brief, and Rey pulled back, leaning on her heels with Ben blinking at her. When he did not respond, she pressed into him again, her hands warming his cheeks as she connected their lips for a second time. It took Ben a few more seconds to respond and his arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her tightly against him as their kiss deepened.

Rey’s knee brushed against his crotch and Ben quickly pulled away, sliding out of her reach and taking several deep breaths as he watched Rey flush in embarrassment. He smiled, though. His arms loosened, and his hand reached to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear, his thumb then sliding against her jaw.

‘Don’t tell me that I told you so.’ Rey murmured.

‘I told you so.’

She slapped at his shoulder with a glare, though there was laughter on her lips. Ben just stared up at her, seeming to want to swallow her whole with a single look and Rey wondered absently whether the same look was in her eyes. It was what she felt, regardless.

Ben stood then, leaning down to kiss her soundly while lifting her from the bench until she was standing in front of him and he could feel her body pressed perfectly against his. Could feel her short nails grazing his scalp.

‘Do you need to get that last train back?’ Ben asked against her lips, his thumbs glancing her skin and his fingers pushing her loose hair from her face.

‘I’ll probably be late if I don’t.’ Rey took a step backwards and looked up at Ben. ‘And you still need to find Finn.’

He nodded. ‘Though you were a perfect distraction.’

Rey grinned and turned, slipping her heels on and grabbing her coat. ‘Let’s go then.’

Ben seemed to hesitate but followed her lead, pulling on his coat and picking up his satchel. Rey began to type quickly on her phone and they both wished the security guard a good evening as they made their way down the hall and out of the front door.

The air was frigid outside, and Rey tightened her borrowed coat around her and stood closer to Ben, trying to leech his warmth.

‘Where do you think he’ll be now?’ she asked.

‘I’m not too sure, he might have gone back to the restaurant.’

Rey nodded lightly. ‘I’m sorry I can’t help you.’

Ben shrugged and looked down at her, a smile twisting his lips. ‘Don’t worry about it. I owe you that contract now, anyway.’

‘You have a few weeks to get it signed, so make sure you don’t forget about me.’

His smile widened, and he shook his head. ‘I don’t think that’s possible.’

Rey was only drawn away from the expression when a car drove up the gravelled drive and she stumbled forward, opening the door to slip in. Ben followed after her, their hands catching on the door’s edge and then across the seat in the Lyft.

The drive was full of what Rey could only describe as middle-school level flirting. They’d glance at each other, barely exchanging words and then they would both laugh. It was sickening, and Rey knew that if Kaydel had witnessed it, she would have been shouting ‘just bone already’.

Rey considered that she had a lot to think about over the ten-minute drive to Union Station and as time ran she began to hear Kaydel’s words over and over in her mind.

_You need an interruption. You need a hurricane, in fact you need an avalanche to sweep through your life right now and turn it upside down. Or else what would be different from how you were living last week?_

Last week Rey had been with Armitage. Last week she thought she loved him, she thought that she would be with him through thick and thin, until the end. When she’d told him those words the day before, that she couldn’t carry on any longer, it had felt like a weight off that she hadn’t known she was carrying. It was frustrating to know that she should have made that choice before, she could have felt weightless long before now.

The fact was that Rey didn’t know what would happen if she slept with Ben, if she chose not to get on that last train, and it frightened her. Armitage had made sure that everything was always planned for ‘expectations to be managed’ and living like that for so long took any sort of impulsivity out of her life.

But then she hadn’t planned on doing more than going to a pitch meeting when she had gotten onto the train that morning. She hadn’t planned on Ben Solo.

Rey glanced at him and he was smirking at her, their pinkies linked and what Rey had expected to be a tentative smile bloomed on her lips and she felt her chest ache, crying out in absolute resolution. This was better, this felt better already.

The Lyft driver pulled up outside of Union Stations’ grand columns and the two slipped out on the side closest to the pavement, adjusting themselves as they stood together, both glancing up at the station warily.

Her mind was made, she realised, and that determination only increased when she saw the flags of the Hyatt Hotel sitting across from the station, a short five to ten-minute walk away.

‘Do you think you’ll be able to find Finn tomorrow?’ Rey asked.

Ben raised his eyebrows, his hands in the pockets of his slacks. ‘Yeah, but I’ll probably try a bit more tonight.’

‘Do you have to?’ she queried.

He took a pause and then the smirk drew across his lips again. ‘Are you not getting on the train?’ he questioned.

She shook her head and her hands tightened on her bag strap as the accessory bounced against her thighs and knees in front of her. ‘I’ve thought about it, and I’ve decided that it feels right. You feel right.’

‘I think you’re saying that a little prematurely,’ he murmured, though Rey didn’t miss the ruddy colour in his cheeks and at the tips of his ears where they poked out of his hair.

‘Don’t make me change my mind,’ she responded with a light shake of her head, though as she started making her way around the station’s drive, her smile did not fade. Rey only glanced back when she realised that Ben hadn’t dropped into step beside her and when he did, his warm hand enveloped hers and he slid their clasped hands into his coat pocket.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More random stuff:
> 
> \- I went to DC when I was like 5, so I obviously don't remember it. Instead I used Google streetview and literally went down the streets as if I was there to guess what the area would look like and to guess out a path for them to travel by. Starting from 7th street (where Capital One and the NPG are), they drove up to G St NW and travelled west on it until they reached 15th street. From this position next to the Treasury, you can indeed see the Washington Monument, though as you travel south down 15th street, visability of the White House is not the best. 15th street eventually leads to Constitution Ave, where the Smithosonian museums are situated. The road ends and diverges onto Pennsylvania Ave NW, which they drive down to see the Capitol Building and eventually continue on to Kentucky Ave (where I placed the training center), a little less than 2 miles south east of Union Station. 
> 
> \- The car crash: Oftentimes when people get into car crashes, they will turn the wheel to keep the incoming crash away from themselves. In this situation, Luke turned the wheel away from his side (by reflex), leading to the full force of the car to hit the passengers side. 
> 
> If you have any questions, you're welcome to throw them at me.


	5. The Night

‘I’ll pay,’ Rey murmured as she handed her Amex to the hotel receptionist, having to disconnect her hand from Ben’s to do so.

Once the card was back in her purse again, Ben took her hand again and they both smiled at the receptionist as he took the room key. They made their way towards the elevators, maintaining the sudden silence that had descended over them after an awkward conversation on condoms.

Despite Rey having the implant, she reluctantly mentioned that Armitage always used them, and she was resolute that she wanted to try without it. Ben decided not to mention his ‘condom wallet’ as Poe liked to call it, which faithfully sat in the bottom of his satchel, and simply agreed to Rey’s request, vouching that he was clean.

Mostly he was just overwhelmed. It had been different when he had propositioned her that morning on the train. Now he knew her, or at least he felt like he knew her, and the thought made him think he should hesitate. He didn’t want to just be a one-night stand to her after today and wouldn’t this jeopardise any kind of future between them in some way?

When she had grazed against him with her knee in the gym, he’d almost jumped out of his skin and Ben Solo couldn’t ever recollect a time where he’d been frightened by what he was feeling before.

Even just her hand in his, it was right. Frighteningly so. _You feel right_ , she’d said, and Ben thought there weren’t truer words. What was the point in hesitating?

‘You’re very quiet considering this was originally your idea,’ Rey murmured as they stood in the elevator, travelling up to the sixth floor. ‘Don’t do this often?’

Ben smiled, not looking at her, just watching their reflection in the chrome doors. ‘Less than you would think.’

She narrowed her eyes at him and the elevator stopped. Rey moved first, pulling him through the doors and following the signs to get to room 622. They stopped outside of the door and Rey took her hand back, looking up at Ben carefully.

‘Last chance.’ she said.

He chuckled and shook his head. ‘Oh no, I absolutely want this. I thought I’d just give you some time with your thoughts’

Rey laughed and inserted the key, watching the small LED flicker green before she pulled on the handle and stepped into the room.

It was amply sized with a small reception area housing two chairs and a glass table. Rey put her bag down on one of the chairs and slipped out of her heels. Ben was pulling off his coat and he opened the small wardrobe, hanging it up and reaching out to Rey for hers.

‘Thanks,’ she muttered as she took stock of the room, her hands on her hips.

Ben watched her, swallowing lightly. His eyes unabashedly swept across her figure and he held back immediately closing the distance between them when Rey looked at him, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth.

‘Five minutes. You have five minutes,’ she said and then she disappeared into the bathroom.

He chuckled as he removed his suit jacket, hung it on the arm of the chair and removed his own shoes. The water begun to run, and he moved towards the large windows, opening the curtains and taking in the last remnants of the sunset. He could see the domed roof of the Capitol Building in the distance and Ben felt a pang in his chest. He’d missed this place, he’d missed his parents and he was an absolute fool.

The bathroom door opened then, and Ben closed his eyes, his hand fisting the thick material of the curtain.

‘You were right about me being a wimp. I’ve avoided this place for five years, and before then, I left it as long as I possibly could before visiting.’ Ben murmured.

He felt Rey approach, but did not turn to her.

‘Who would have thought?’ she began, humour in her tone. ‘The girl you’ve known for less than twenty-four hours could get you to admit something you’ve been avoiding for ten years.’

Rey chuckled, and Ben turned to her, releasing the curtain and he bent slightly, pressing his lips softly against hers, sucking gently on her lower lip before he let go, his forehead resting against hers.

‘Consider that payment,’ he said, his breath warming Rey’s lips.

She smiled, and her fingers drifted to the buttons on his shirt, slowly undoing them from top to bottom, pulling his shirt from his trousers and continuing until it hung loose, his tie the only thing holding it somewhat together.

Ben watched her, the corners of his mouth tipped upwards and he reached up, pulling at the ribbon holding what remained of her tied hair and it dropped across her shoulders, waved from being held up all day. He swept it behind her shoulders, his lips pressing kisses against the corner of her mouth, her jaw and then her neck and beneath her ear.

Rey sighed gently, her hands reaching to pull at his tie and pull the shirt from his shoulders, leaving him in his cotton undershirt. Her hands dropped to the buckle of his belt and she pulled it loose. Ben’s attention moved back to her when she tugged at his clasp and zip, her fingers brushing against his burgeoning erection through the two layers of clothes there.

‘Any particular requests?’ Ben murmured, his lips at her collar, having pushed her dress slightly over her shoulder.

She hummed lightly, her fingers deftly freeing him from his fly and she hesitated, her hand against his brief-covered cock. Her eyes dropped between them and then she looked back at Ben, clearing her throat.

‘Oh,’ she uttered. ‘Your humongous ego?’

His laugh was sudden and automatic, and Rey ended up joining in with him, until his head was resting in the crook of her neck as his stuttering breaths relaxed. ‘Is it okay?’ he murmured, surprising Rey.

‘I don’t know,’ she responded honestly.

There’d only ever been Armitage and he had been no comparison to Ben.

‘I guess we’ll give it a try,’ she added, and Ben chuckled against her throat.

‘You’re amazing, do you know that?’ He said and then he backed up and looked at her carefully. His eyes trailed across her, Rey’s chest and neck turning a deeper shade of red as he stared at her. ‘Beautiful too, and funny and cute.’

Rey folded her arms across her chest. ‘You know you don’t have to butter me up, I’m already yours.’

‘Mine?’ He grinned, and his hands reached for her waist, his large hands spanning against the small width of her. ‘I like that.’

Before Rey could respond, he tugged at the bow in her dress, loosening it and Rey watched him undo the knot and pull the material apart. He swallowed as he pushed the material over her shoulders and let her arms slip from the sleeves, leaving her in her black bra and panties. He glanced up at her, and she was observing him carefully.

Warm hands met her stomach again and they slipped from her waist to her back, fingers tracing her spine. Rey closed her eyes as Ben’s lips were on hers again and she groaned when she felt his stiff length against her stomach. He took the opportunity to deepen their kiss and his tongue tentatively reached for hers while Rey’s arms wrapped around him, pulling him tightly against her.

Rey’s hands moved back to his trousers and she pulled them further down, letting Ben step out of them and her cold fingers drifted to his stomach again causing him to jerk when the appendages slipped against the taught skin beneath his t-shirt.

She chuckled against his lips and pulled the hem up, disconnecting from Ben so she could pull it over his head. Rey could barely contain the smile on her face as she looked over his chest and stomach. The pale skin there was splattered with white lines of scar tissue, and Rey wanted to kiss every single mar on his skin.

‘Last chance for requests,’ Ben said smoothly, deciding to finally move them away from the window.

Rey crawled onto the bed with Ben following after her, and the two of them knelt in front of each other, silence following them yet again. Rey seemed deep in thought and Ben watched her patiently, his thumbs rubbing circles into the dips at her hips.

Her arms reached for him and she rested them leisurely on his shoulders, their noses almost touching. Rey’s breathing grew heavier when Ben’s thumbs dipped into the waistband of her underwear.

‘Well that’s where I’d like to start,’ he said easily and Rey smiled, her fingers combing through his dark curls.

‘Sounds good.’

A hand moved from her hip and his fingers drifted between her legs, his middle finger pressing a solid line from her clothed entrance towards where her clit was. Rey shuddered under his touch and he grinned.

‘So wet for me?’

Rey nodded, her chest heaving as he ran his finger along her again. ‘You’ve made today quite difficult for me.’

Ben smiled at that and he nudged her thighs further apart before a digit slipped beneath the wet cotton of her panties, and he deftly stroked her folds, Rey keening and her grip on his shoulders loosening.

‘Fuck,’ she said through gritted teeth.

‘What was that?’ he asked, his hand moving away in order to change the angle of his approach, this time reaching her sopping centre from her waist band.

‘Fuck,’ she repeated, louder this time.

A finger, which must have been the same that had rubbed her, plunged into her and Rey twitched against him, a moan leaving her lips. The slight stretch had been unexpected, and Rey closed her eyes, remembering that this was just his finger. The ‘fuck’ that left her mouth this time was tainted with the idea of him filling her, pulling her apart until it stung.

Ben hummed, seemingly satisfied and he pulled his hand from her. Rey looked up at him, a question in the crease of her brow, but he didn’t answer, he merely put his finger in his mouth, licking her slick clean from it.

Rey swallowed absently, and she reached for the clasp on her bra, but was halted by Ben and he took over, undoing the back and sliding the straps from her shoulders. He paused as he leaned back and took a deep breath, his eyes not leaving her, and Rey felt her arousal spike from just watching him watch her. There was something profoundly erotic about the way he looked at her and it made her throat dry.

‘You don’t plan on wearing anything low cut in the next week, do you?’ he asked, eyes meeting hers.

She tilted her head slightly and then realisation dawned on her, and she chuckled. ‘I suppose not.’

He hummed happily and then she was on her back, with his lips on her chest, sucking first on the skin beneath her breasts, while his thumbs rubbed at her hardened nipples. When she groaned at his attention, he squeezed them between his fingers, leaving more bruising marks against her sternum, collar bones and shoulders. In between sucking what felt like a black hole against one of her ribs, a hand pulled roughly at her underwear, sliding it from her legs and tossing it to the side.

Rey hissed as the cool air touched her soaked centre and then she cried out as a finger entered her again. He gently pumped it in and out of her, his thumb just grazing her swollen clitoris, not enough to get the exact sensation she wanted, but enough to let her know that he was playing with her.

‘More, more please,’ she chanted, her own hand reaching to meet his and take over.

‘You said you were all mine, I don’t share,’ he murmured against her nipple, his breath against the sensitive bud, making her ache.

Rey arched off the bed when he added another finger and she mewled, forgetting for a moment what he had said. She managed to grasp onto some semblance of coherency and she reached for him, her fingers gripping the waistband of his briefs. Rey pulled at it and she felt it begin to give and slide down his ass, though it caught on him.

Ben stopped for a moment, two fingers pausing as they scissored inside of her and he groaned as Rey gripped him, her cool hand against his burning cock.

‘Mine too?’ she queried.

He nodded, his forehead dropping against her shoulder as she slid upwards, taking in his entirety by touch. Her thumb drifted over the tip of his shaft, collecting the precum there and streaking it across his sensitive skin. ‘Yours,’ he muttered, ‘all yours.’

‘It’s only fair that you let me taste you,’ she said, pumping him in her hand gently. ‘And I’m hungry.’

‘Fuck, you have a dirty mouth,’ Ben groaned, and Rey felt him twitch in her hand.

A giggle left her, and she had to fold her lips together to stop it. Ben looked up at her, catching her gaze, and his eyes were dark.  

Rey grinned, and she used her other hand to slide his briefs down his thighs, then leant up off the bed so that she could kneel over Ben, meaning his fingers slipped from inside of her. His underwear fell to the floor beside hers and Rey looked down at his erection, trying to rein in her reaction. Whether she was trying to keep his ego in check, or to hide any residual wariness of her own, she wasn’t quite sure.

‘Just for a little, okay?’ she asked.

Ben didn’t have to question what she meant, as she swiftly scooted down the bed and took up his cock in her hands, licking his tip with sheer delight. He was lost as he watched her, suddenly having the urge to give her everything she wanted.

Her mouth closed over him, warm and wet as she worked her jaw to let more of him past her lips. Rey’s fingers were light against the rest of his shaft, making Ben squirm at her delicate touch. She closed her eyes, sighing as she sucked, and he shut his eyes, his hands covering his face as he groaned loudly.

‘As much as I want you to continue,’ he panted. ‘You’ve got to stop.’

Rey frowned as she pulled away and when Ben eventually met her eyes again, he almost laughed as he ran a hand through his hair. ‘I’m not going to forget that anytime soon.’

‘What, my frown?’ she joked.

Ben took the opportunity to pull on Rey’s leg, sliding her onto her back again and he pulled her closer and to the centre of the bed. This time he did not start on her chest, and his lips immediately descended on the apex of her thighs and Rey felt them tighten in anticipation.

He seemed to play with her then–two fingers spreading her labia, and his hot breath washing over her sensitive flesh. She keened impatiently, and he grinned up at her briefly before his flattened tongue spread from her centre towards her clit. Rey twitched, and Ben held her hip gently while his arm went to lift her left leg over his shoulder as he licked and sucked her sensitive expanse.

Rey arched, her fingers tangling in his hair as he drank her in and her moans only grew in volume, to the point where she distantly worried if the adjoining rooms could hear her. The thought was brief as she felt her precipice come in a rush and then she was gasping, her vision spotting white and her fingers weakening as she orgasmed. Ben, for painfully longer than Rey thought necessary, continued to drink from her until he had his fill and then he retreated, his mouth glistening with her come.

‘Fuck,’ she murmured softly, staring up at the spotlights in the ceiling.

Ben laid beside her, chuckling as his hand slipped over her stomach. ‘You could fill an album with all the different ways you say fuck,’ he murmured, his lips against her neck again.

She chuckled distantly, still trying to gain the feeling in her toes back, not wanting to cut what they were doing off here. It wasn’t enough to have him eat her out, she needed the whole tour. She needed to be able to say, ‘Armitage who?’ when this was all over.

 _Kaydel would be so proud,_ she thought absently.

His hand trailed up her stomach and to her breast again as he pressed kisses on her shoulder, seeming to wait for her okay. Rey eased up, Ben’s lips having to break from her as she moved. Then she was on her knees, straddling his legs with his erection between them, in her line of sight.

Ben leaned up, though Rey pushed him back down onto his back. He only followed her instruction with a grin, his arms reaching up in order to lean his head on the back of his hands.

‘Stop looking so smug,’ she said, though there was laughter on her lips.

‘A beautiful woman is going to ride me, how else am I supposed to react?’ he questioned.

She rubbed her lips together, the blush spreading across her chest. Her fingers drifted over the scars on his ribs and chest, Ben closing his eyes all the while. Eventually she spotted the curved scar that was carved into his hip, and she felt compelled to give it her attention. Instead she simply smiled, deciding that she would leave that for another day.

There was still some trepidation in her, but it was as if Ben sensed this, as his hands rose to her hips, and his expression neutralised. The mirth left him, and it was replaced by a comforting smile.

She leaned towards him, trapping his erection between their stomachs as she kissed him quickly. When she rose again, she canted her hips, taking a hand to position him against her entrance and she took him gently, feeling herself clamping hesitantly around his thick length.

‘Fuck,’ she groaned, her hand screwing the quilt beneath her fingers while Ben’s grip tightened on her hips.

‘Nearly there,’ he murmured, his voice strained as Rey let out another gasp, verging on breathlessness. ‘Does it feel good?’ he asked.

She nodded, pushing herself further over him, taking all of him in until he finally bottomed out within her, the tip of him pressing against her cervix. Her eyes opened to meet Ben’s, and she found herself laughing lightly, semi-dazed at feeling him fill her—to feel so stretched, pulled taught against him.

He groaned as she fidgeted over him, his hips wanting to move. Rey gave him what he wanted as she lifted herself off him and then slid back down, keening when she felt his tip press against her again. Ben lifted his hips to meet her, adding a force to what they were doing.

‘Would you, would you touch yourself?’ he requested, his words a stutter. ‘For me.’

Without a thought she complied, her forefinger reaching between them to stroke gently at her sensitive bud.

One of Ben’s hands slid from her hip to her breast, kneading it roughly in his hand.

Rey increased her speed, her mind going in overdrive as she heard the slap of skin against skin, Ben watching her all the while, completely enraptured. He felt the tension in his balls tighten as he watched her, and he swallowed down the urge to tell her that he didn’t want this to end as he hurtled towards his end.

He noticed Rey’s fingers grow lazy, so the hand against her chest moved back down to between them, taking over her ministrations with vigour, leaving Rey to moan louder until she suddenly shuddered, crying out as she peaked. Her grip on him tightened, warm and enveloping and it took a few more thrusts, orchestrated by Ben, to finish him and he turned them, Rey collapsing on her back as he filled her.

She breathed heavily, her eyes not breaking from Ben’s as he half-lay half-knelt between her legs, his cock softening within her as he continued to spurt.

‘I’m going to be dripping for days,’ she murmured absently.

Ben could only press his face into her neck, knowing he’d never come like that before, knowing he’d made a mess of them both. Somehow, some way, she had walked onto that train and become his reckoning and every single part of him knew it.

They were both silent for several minutes, still connected by Ben’s half-hard cock with his weight almost fully over her, which Rey found she liked immensely. She liked the feel of him still inside her, sitting comfortably within her as something primally hers.

‘Stay with me?’ Her voice was soft against his ear and Ben merely nodded.

Eventually the two disconnected from each other long enough to use the bathroom, then tiredly shower together, exchanging gentle kisses under the warm flow of water. When they had dried off, Rey pulled Ben beneath the covers, humming delightedly as he enveloped her into his warmth and carried her off to her dreams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's be honest, there isn't much to add about smut.


	6. Someone That Loves You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shorter one, ahead of the long long final chapter.

After leaving the curtains wide open, it was no surprise that the pair were woken up by the sun rising at 6:00am. 

Their legs were intertwined, and Rey was mostly draped across Ben’s chest when they finally opened their eyes. They shared easy smiles and Rey sighed softly, not wanting to get up but knowing that she needed to get onto the first train at seven.

‘Do you want to walk me to the station?’ she asked, rubbing her eyes. 

Ben nodded, humming to himself. 

They eventually climbed out of the bed and slowly got dressed, Rey frowning as she pulled on her day-old underwear, suddenly wishing that she were one of those women with a bag full of every conceivable thing that a person could possibly need in any situation. 

She’d have to ask Kaydel to bring a change of clothes to work for her. Ben, frustratingly, looked as fresh as a daisy, somehow not even his shirt was creased. 

Rey combed through her hair with her fingers as she waited for Ben to put his coat on, wondering how she was going to hide the singular hickey that Ben had left just a little too high on her sternum. When they finally walked out of the door, she tied her hair into a loose bun and they made their way down the hall, Rey feeling more confident in her heels than she had the previous morning, but still gladly holding onto Ben’s hand for support. 

‘Where are you going to look first?’ Rey asked as they waited for the elevator.

‘I think the restaurant. I’m hoping that Paige would have convinced him to at least see me,’ he answered. 

She yawned absently and nodded as they stepped into the compartment. ‘It’s a shame we can’t be seatmates again.’ 

‘I think that’s for the best,’ he answered, kissing her neck quickly. 

Rey snorted, an amused chuckle leaving her as they descended. 

After a quick check-out, the walk back to Union Station was too short. Ben even went as far as standing with Rey as she bought a new train ticket and he reluctantly waited with her by the platform, not wanting to let go of her. 

‘See you in New York?’ Ben asked warily as the train began to accept passengers for its first journey of the day.

She smiled and nodded. ‘See you in New York with that Calrissian contract,’ she amended pointedly. 

He grinned and nodded, letting her hand slip from his as she made several steps away. She turned and waved, hurrying towards the train before it left. 

Ben stood there for a while, waiting as the train pulled out of Union Station and using that time to remember that while he had Rey’s business card, it did not have her cell number on it. He almost kicked himself, yet a part of him felt that it would be more satisfying to see her again with the contract in his hands. 

** XxX **

Rey pulled her phone from her bag as soon as she sat down, ready to send Kaydel a message. As she expected it was dead, so she had to wait the two minutes while she charged it in the port beside her chair for it to wake up. 

‘I don’t have his number,’ she said to herself, groaning out loud. ‘Idiot.’ 

She frowned but knew that she could probably call his office when he was back to work on Monday and get it from him directly. 

Rey was relatively unsurprised to find several missed calls, and a few voicemails. All of the voicemails and most of the missed calls were from Armitage. What remained were from Kaydel, and they were only accentuated by the various messages she had left full of eggplant emojis. 

‘Morning, Sunshine.’ Kaydel said chirpily once she picked up the phone. ‘I hope the boning was high quality.’ 

‘Shut up,’ Rey hissed, though she laughed all the same. 

Rey could practically hear Kaydel grinning on the other end. ‘I knew you had it in you. Are you on your way back now?’ 

‘Yeah. Do you mind bringing me an extra outfit?’ 

There was clapping and then Rey could hear the loud bang of Kaydel’s cell-phone likely hitting the hardwood floor in her apartment. There was some shuffling and cursing before the phone was back to her ear. ‘I always love to dress you, so of course.’ 

‘Also, thanks Kay.’ 

‘Anytime, my love.’ She responded. 

The line disconnected, and Rey dropped her phone onto the table, her eyes glancing over the icons left in her notification bar from Armitage’s persistent attack on her sanity. She could block him, she knew she could, yet Rey was profoundly aware that, that would mean something beyond a breakup. That was like erasing him completely and the thought irked her. Instead, she put the phone to her ear again and dialled the number for her voicemail, deciding to listen to whatever he had to say in a way where it wasn’t a battle of wits or stamina.

The messages started out erratic enough. Armitage sometimes berating her behaviour or bringing up something petty about her. In other messages he’d bargain with her, saying that she was right to feel hurt, and that he could do better. 

And then, and this had been at around 1am, he seemed to let her go. He apologised, and in one message he was even sobbing, and Rey felt herself tear up too, crying because this really was the end. This was the end of seven years. In the end, in his final voicemail, he told her he loved her, even if it wasn’t in the way they both wanted. 

Rey simmered quietly, holding the phone tightly in her hands and trying to cry it all out now on this train, where she was surrounded by strangers who wouldn’t see her again. 

As the halfway point came in her journey, she found herself breathing easier, the image of one door closing and another opening keen in her mind. 

Ben.

Ben was who she thought about and she inhaled gently, feeling the echoes of his touch against her skin, his lips against hers and the dull soreness in her joints and between her legs from the previous night.

She was able to smile then as she removed her tablet and set to responding to her ignored mailbox, feeling like she was ready to face the unknown head-on.  

** XxX **

Ben walked the distance from Union Station to Downtown, just in case he happened upon Finn on the way. His friend always took morning runs and Ben couldn’t imagine today being any different.

Naturally, the restaurant was closed at seven-thirty in the morning, so Ben took to rapping on the door for the apartment upstairs, his phone having died sometime in the night. 

It was Finn who opened it, already dressed in a jumper and jeans, with a wool hat sitting over his dark coiled curls. 

‘You, are an asshole.’ Ben said simply.

Usually Finn would have smiled, but instead he nodded reluctantly and pulled Ben into a hug. 

The older man sighed, hugging him back. 

‘Don’t do that to me, Finn,’ he breathed out. ‘You know you’re the closest thing I have to a little brother.’ 

Finn shrugged then, letting go of Ben and shutting the door behind him. ‘I needed to get away.’ 

Ben sighed and the two began to walk, no words shared between them as they made their way to the place they knew best: Kennedy Recreation Center. 

While the walk wasn’t exceptionally long, the silence between them only stretched out the tension until it was at breaking point. By the time they were both sat in the swing set far too big for them both, facing the outside basketball courts, Ben had realised how truly frustrated he was and Finn, how lost he was. 

‘You’ve been spending your time with Rose, right?’ Ben began, not looking at Finn, but keeping his eyes resolutely on the fencing around the basketball courts.

This had been where Ben had first met Finn. This is where he’d taught the younger boy how to dunk, the best way to shoot from the three-point line, the best way to fake out the opposing team. A lonely 14-year-old, facing off against an overly excited 6-year-old, the younger accepting the older boy as his brother as soon as he’d set his eyes on him. 

Ben had taught Finn everything he knew, and this ground had become holy. The courts were their homes when they felt alone in their own. The courts were an escape when Ben was just so tired of seeing his uncle’s face. When Finn couldn’t bear the fact that while Rose and Paige had been fostered, he was still in that same care home, counting down the days until he was old enough to leave. 

Finn and Ben had always dreamed of playing for the Washington Wizards one day, keeping the homegrown dream alive, thinking that together they could do anything, even if Ben had to wait for his little brother to catch up. But it didn’t happen, and now it was like Finn was trying to ruin his own career, trying to run from his own dreams. 

‘Yeah,’ Finn finally said. 

‘I understand that,’ Ben started, looking at his hands as his elbows rested against his knees. ‘But you could have picked up the phone, Finn.’

The younger man huffed. ‘So you could tell me to sign the contract?’

‘You rejected the contract from the Kings last year and if this continues, you might not get another offer. You’re jeopardising everything.’ Ben said, his tone growing agitated as he spoke.

Finn shrugged, his expression flat. ‘I’m fine staying in the G-League if the Wizards don’t want me.’ 

Ben rubbed his face, sighing. ‘They can’t afford you, Finn. You know that _First Order_ can’t hand you over to the NBA on less than ten million. And you know that’s out of my hands.’ 

‘I don’t need money’

‘Who said  _ you’re _ going for the money?’

‘Aren’t  _ you _ doing this for the money? Isn’t that what the agency is saying?’ Finn answered, grimacing and turning sharply to look at Ben.

Ben straightened up. ‘Opportunities like this don’t come every day. Are you really going to give it up for a girl?’

‘She’s not just a girl and you know that. I wouldn’t be anything without her.’ There was real hurt on Ben’s face then and Finn relented, realising what his words meant. Finn sighed, taking a breath. ‘You know what I mean, it’s not the same.’

‘What do you want me to say, Finn?’

Finn closed his eyes, his hands opening and closing into fists. ‘I want you to tell me it’s okay. I want you to tell me that we’ll take less than ten million because it’s what I want. I want you to say fuck the First Order.’ 

Ben frowned and ran his hands through his hair. ‘Snoke won’t have it Finn. I’m sorry.’ 

‘If you cared, you wouldn’t be apologising.’

‘You know I do.’ Ben’s voice had dropped, disappearing into the atmosphere around them. 

He thought about that night. Running all the way from afternoon practice to get to the rec center, knowing that Finn was there waiting for him, that he’d wait all day if he had to. Even though Ben’s body felt like it was on fire, he played game after game with Finn until the sun had set. Finn had said he’d got into Dunbar High, so he could meet Ben at the rec center every day after school when he wasn’t at school basketball practice and Ben wasn’t at a game. Ben had agreed and then Finn had pulled a layup on Ben that he hadn’t seen coming. 

When they had finally stopped, and Ben had agreed to buy Finn a burger, his uncle had come speeding into the Kennedy parking lot, telling him that he was late for evening practice that Ben had known nothing about. Finn had frowned, punching Ben in the arm for owing him a burger, but he’d waved still, telling him he’d see him tomorrow as usual. 

But he didn’t. 

When Ben’s dad had eventually thought to bring Finn in to see him in the hospital, Finn hadn’t understood what had happened. He thought Ben would spend a few weeks banged up, but then be released and ready for training again. 

Ben had been silent. He hadn’t spoken for weeks, not even when Finn had come by every day, scrawling his name on his casts. One time he’d brought Paige and Rose, and they’d filled in the white space too. 

Eventually the therapy got Ben talking again, but the thought of his uncle was like a thorn in his side, a constant pressure that threatened to poison and infect him with every minute left inside his body. The thorn had eventually driven him from his home and Ben had run off to do whatever he could with a high school diploma, a year and half’s worth of college credits and a constant love of basketball. 

‘I know how it’s been,’ Finn murmured, twiddling his thumbs. ‘I know what you want me to be.’

‘I want you to be the best you can be.’ Ben responded, looking back at the courts again. 

Finn shook his head. ‘From the day you left the hospital, you wanted me to be what you couldn’t be.’ Ben was ready to interrupt, but Finn shook his head. ‘I don’t resent you for that, I don’t even think that you treated me like Luke treated you, but I know it feels like you’ve been waiting ten years for me.’ 

Ben didn’t say anything, his eyes just dropped to the soft tarmac of the playground. 

‘You know, for that week that I didn’t see you, I was so frightened.’ Finn started, and Ben could hear the change in his voice. ‘At first, I thought you’d died and I could forgive you for that, but then I thought that you’d disappeared just like everybody else, leaving me alone because you just didn’t need me anymore.’ He wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand and then turned to look at Ben. ‘Then when Han took me to the hospital, I was so happy to know you were still around, but in some ways it was worse, because you were never the same after that.’ Finn swallowed, trying to rein in his tears. ‘And I miss that Ben from before, and this is why I say that I can’t go to LA. I can’t go that far. I won’t disappear.’

The older man huffed, laughing to himself, and then he stopped, unable to laugh any longer. ‘I’m sorry, Finn. I didn’t mean to—.’

Finn shook his head. ‘I know you’ve been in pain this whole time, and though I was thirteen, I wasn’t an idiot. I know what basketball meant to you, I know what it still does. You never have to apologise for that.’ He reached for Ben’s arm then, making him look at him. ‘But sometimes you should remember what it was like to just to be on those courts over there with me, what it was like to hear the squeak of sneakers on polished maple. And other things, you should just let go.’

Ben nodded, understanding blooming within him, even if he wanted to keep it at arm’s length. Even when he wanted to ignore it completely. There were a lot of things he was still holding onto from ten years ago, and it hadn’t helped him, it had only made him resentful. Yet Finn had forgiven him regardless, even when he’d left DC, and had continued to micromanage his friend’s life from several states away. He’d been wrong to do that. He’d been wrong to do a lot of things.

‘I’ll talk to Snoke,’ Ben eventually said, standing up from the swing and holding a hand out to Finn.

Finn grinned and took it, pulling himself up and shaking it firmly. He didn’t break his grip, however, and merely pulled Ben into a tight hug. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hihi. Random tidbits, I guess I can't stop these now:
> 
> \- Kennedy Recreation Center is located North-ish of Union Station and about a 10-20 minute walk from the restaurant. It houses both indoor and outdoor basketball courts. Outdoor tennis courts and a playground, among other things. From my research, it is an under-utilised center, which is a shame, so for any people who live in DC, go visit and utilise the space! 
> 
> \- By Finn not choosing to accept an offer from the NBA/go through the drafting process, he is ultimately hindering himself for the future. He could stagnate in the G-League and ruin his future chances in the NBA if he takes too long to leave. For those capable, the G-League should really just be a spring board to the NBA, a sort of placeholder after high school to wait for eligibility (getting to 19/20 years old tbh) when applying for the NBA draft. Contracts are usually a year/season long at a time for this reason. At G-League Showcases, players can show their skills and be 'called up' to the NBA. In simple terms, showcases and Finn's performance over the last 2 basketball seasons has earned him a lot of interest from NBA teams. 
> 
> \- The one thing that I've made unusual about Finn is that he has been able to stay at the same G-League team for 2/3 seasons. A lot of the time players are moved around from team to team as they sign a contract with the league itself, not a single team. 
> 
> \- Dunbar High is a real school, about 10 minutes east of the rec center (by foot). It is a public high school, historically known for being America's first public school for black students. It came into existence in 1870 under the name: Preparatory High School for Colored Youth and then the name: M Street High School from 1891 to 1916. It was renamed as Dunbar, after the African-American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar who died 10 years prior. 
> 
> \- Dunbar is not only well known academically, but also for its athletic programmes in american football, basketball and track. Several graduating students have gone on to play for the NBA, which is why I chose this school for Finn. 
> 
> \- One of my favourite things about sports like basketball and football (the 'goooaalllllll' kind) is that they are sports that can be played by anyone anywhere, and that means they are wholly open to a large range of people. These sports are so often tickets out of poverty and a potential life of crime for so many people and I found that writing this, I realised how much sports can 'save people', so to speak. Basketball is intrinsically important to Finn and Ben, but both in different ways. Ben loves it, but uses it as an escape from his problems, but Finn loves it, and it's all he knows and has. All he needs is his arms and legs, and the community provides him with the ball and the court via tax dollars. I'm mostly just babbling on right now, but sports has always played a key part in my life and it's something constantly pushed as necessary for kids in the UK and I think it's important. I guess what i'm saying is support your local sports teams, and donate to any community outreach groups that are looking to get kids into sports! :D (You can even do that by buying a national lottery ticket in the UK)
> 
> SORRY TO KEEP YOU HAHA. THANKS


	7. Good Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh finally. All done! This one took FOREVER to edit. LOL. Thanks for reading. It's been great. You can find me on twitter @Saidah08 if you so wish it.

Rey moved through the office as swiftly as she could, trying to avoid any attention as she knew she wasn’t looking her finest, especially after a lengthy train journey with only a compact mirror and her lipstick handy.

‘Ooh la la, the walk of shame,’ Kaydel called out to her. Thankfully only their intern Lisa heard, and she merely sniggered. Rey imagined that Kaydel had almost certainly divulged what she knew of Rey’s night to the younger woman.

‘Just give me the dress,’ Rey groaned, slapping Kaydel’s wandering hands away.

The woman did as she was told with a frown and Rey slipped away into the women’s bathroom with a medium-sized Macy’s bag in tow. When she pulled out the purple dress— that thankfully had a high neckline— a pair of underwear slipped from the folds and Rey remembered why she was friends with Kaydel as she ripped the tag off. There was even a fresh stick of deodorant in the bottom.

Adjusting herself in the mirror and feeling somewhat more human now, Rey tucked her dirty clothes into the bag and exited. Kaydel was waiting outside with a bottle of CK One in her hands, and Rey held out her wrists with a grin, before she wiped the remaining liquid onto her neck.

‘You love me, don’t you?’ Kaydel questioned.

Rey laughed and the two began walking down the hall and back to the office. Uncharacteristically, Kaydel was waiting patiently to hear the full tale of Rey’s previous day.

‘You’ve got to wait until lunch, it’s long.’ Rey said simply.

Kaydel frowned but relented. ‘Dopheld remembered what happened to him by the way. Why he stopped playing. ’

‘He told me in the end,’ she answered. Her lips tilted into a small smile as she looked at the hallway stretching out in front of them. Rey found that there was something wholly satisfying about being on the receiving end of Ben’s honesty, and though it wasn’t a happy story, it was his and he was willing to share it.

The blonde woman glanced at Rey, surprised to see the smile that pulled at her mouth. Rey held the Macy’s bag tightly against her chest and took a breath, walking ahead and no longer standing in as support for the woman who waddled after her.

In fact, lunch between the two of them was surmised as them giggling over milkshakes and eventually raising their glasses in honour of ‘eggplant emojis’. Rey barely managed to divulge any details regarding the previous night, as Kaydel was too busy chortling over Ben’s straight forward approach on the train to DC.

‘That was smart of him, though. Getting you that diet-coke,’ she said, dipping a fry into her milkshake.

Rey rolled her eyes and picked up her burger again. ‘Of course you would say that.’

Kaydel had settled down once Rey began to play through the hours that had followed the train journey. How she had gone to the restaurant he had suggested and that it belonged to friends of his. Then the quick-stop tour and finally the Chandrila Jaguar’s training complex.

‘And he just opened up to you?’ she questioned, her voice small.

Rey nodded, putting her milkshake down. ‘Yesterday was one of the most confusing days of my life, and it’s mostly because he made me rethink everything. With him, it was like I was allowed to do whatever I wanted if it made me happy. I could easily be who I wanted to be without hiding who I was before.’

Kaydel smiled, reaching for Rey’s hand softly. She squeezed it tightly and Rey chuckled.

‘I know you’ve been frustrated with me for a long time and that’s my fault,’ Rey murmured. ‘I should have let go of Armitage a long time ago, but I was chasing after what I thought was happiness and I realise now that it was so far from it.’

‘You were happy yesterday?’ Kaydel asked.

Rey nodded resolutely. ‘I was happy yesterday,’ she confirmed.

**XxX**

Ben was on the 10 AM service back to New York, feeling as if a year had passed. He’d hesitated before getting on the train, thinking that perhaps he should have turned back, called in on his parents, or even said goodbye to Violet. Yet all he could think about was speaking with Snoke while he had the confidence to. The man often had a way of twisting determination into subjugation.

It was a lonely journey and Ben couldn’t help glancing at the empty seat beside him, wondering what Rey would have thought about his choice, what would she say? The thought permeated even as he slid into a taxi to the _First Order_. Maybe she’d think he was making the right decision. That thought alone seemed to ease his anxious mind, and he entered Snoke’s office without trepidation.

‘Are you here to tell me that you have the signed contract?’ Snoke questioned as he leaned forward, his hands folding across the desk.

Ben stood directly in front of his desk, preferring not to sit in order to get this said and done as quickly as possible.

‘I’ve decided that it’s in Finn’s best interest not to sign. I think he should have the final say and I won’t go against what he wants.’

Snoke was silent for several seconds and Ben felt the atmosphere tighten around him. Then he burst into laughter.

‘You’ve decided?’

Ben nodded. ‘I’ve decided.’

‘What ever gave you the impression that you can make those decisions?’ He leaned back, giving Ben a derisive look. ‘Do you understand how much revenue this deal entails?’

‘I do, though money can’t be our answer to everything.’ Ben swallowed and changed his stance. ‘Finn is incredibly popular on the east coast and we can capitalise on that. The Calrissian contract could be the start. If we took the offer from the Wizards—.’

Snoke’s jaw tightened, interrupting Ben with a tightened fist. ‘The Wizards are offering almost half of what the Clippers are offering.’

Ben refrained from huffing and cleared his throat. ‘Finn won’t go.’

‘You’ll make him go.’ Snoke said simply. ‘You’ll make him go or you’ll be reassigned to the Dallas office and it won’t be basketball you’re covering anymore.’

‘You wouldn’t do that.’

Snoke’s eyebrows rose at Ben’s automatic response. ‘Have you somehow deluded yourself into thinking that you are worth more to me than anyone else in this building?’

‘I know I’m worth at least this contract, because you’d never get Finn to sign anything again without me.’ Ben decided not to add the list of other clients who would undoubtedly leave to another agency if Ben was no longer managing their accounts.

Ben saw the grimace bloom across Snoke’s face and the man seemed ready to lift the paperweight on his desk and crush Ben’s skull with it.

‘You’re going to get this contract signed,’ Snoke said tightly, teeth gritting together.

Ben could only think of what Finn had said:

_You should remember what it was like to just to be on those courts over there with me, what it was like to hear the squeak of sneakers on polished maple. And other things, you should just let go_

And his decision was made for him.

‘No.’ Ben said firmly. ‘In fact, I quit.’

The cruel laughter began again and Snoke shook his head, standing on weak legs. ‘And where would you go? No one else will take you.’

Ben shrugged and slipped his employee identification card from his pocket. ‘That’s better than wasting my time here.’ He turned on his heels then, not waiting to hear anything else from Snoke.

He marched through the man’s office, sending Bazine a quick goodbye wave, before he made a quick descent down the emergency staircase to collect his things from his office.

Poe glanced up at him from the copier machine when he swiftly moved towards the door to his personal office. Ben unlocked the door and sifted through his things, semi-annoyed with himself that he didn’t even have personal effects to clear out. He’d truly been pushing everyone away and it was reflected in the lack of framed photos across his desk.

‘What’s going on?’ Poe asked, raising an eyebrow as Ben flitted around his office, tucking paperwork into folders and then his bag.

‘I quit,’ Ben murmured, pouring his pot full of pens into his bag, to at least make it seem like they were his.

When he eventually looked up at Poe, the man was grinning widely.

‘What’s with the smile? Were you waiting to take my job?’ he questioned.

Poe shook his head and walked into the office, lifting the name plaque and happily pushing it into the wastebasket. ‘I’ve been waiting for you to say that for a long time.’

Ben stopped and straightened from his position cleaning out the paperwork in his drawers, his eyebrow raised.

‘You’re the only reason I’ve been here for so long and I will happily follow you to wherever you go next.’ Poe responded with a shrug.

‘You love me that much?’ Ben mocked, chuckling at the man.

Poe frowned. ‘I tell you every day, and you haven’t believed me before? That hurts Ben.’

Ben rolled his eyes and went back to removing any of his personal files and shredding anything that would potentially be useful to Snoke. He tucked the unsigned Calrissian contract into his bag and pushed most of everything else into the trash.

‘So you’re gonna start your own place?’ Poe asked, leaning against the door jamb again.

‘I guess I’ll have to,’ Ben said, his tone laced with uncertainty. ‘Snoke will try and get me blacklisted from every other agency anyway.’

Poe smiled. ‘Well don’t forget me when you do. Best PR in the field they call me.’

Ben chuckled, and he pulled his coat on, lifting his heavier bag onto his shoulder. He approached Poe with his hand out, and the man met him halfway, shaking it vigorously.

‘I’ll call you when I’m settled,’ Ben said with a grin.

Poe nodded and as Ben began to walk through the main office again, Poe shouted after him. ‘Love you, Benny. Don’t miss me too much.’

**XxX**

When Monday morning came around, Rey was even more sure about what she felt. She’d missed Ben all weekend and as soon as she had got into her office, she googled the _First Order_ office and dialled for the reception.

‘Hi, I’m calling for Ben Solo, he’s expecting my call,’ she murmured to the receptionist on the other side.

‘I’m sorry, Ben Solo no longer works with _First Order_ and his replacement has not yet been filled. Would I be able to help in some way?’ the voice responded.

Rey frowned but replied in the negative regardless before putting her receiver back down. She was filled with the sudden anxiety that perhaps Ben had just disappeared, gone as far as quit his job so that she wouldn’t find him. All she had was his name and a Twitter profile that she was under the distinct impression that he had forgotten existed.  

The thought had her distracted all morning, until she remembered that Dopheld had worked with him and when he eventually came down from the accountancy firm on the fifteenth floor to have lunch with Kaydel, she accosted him at the elevators.

‘You coming to lunch with us?’ he questioned, looking at Rey warily as they walked back into the _Resistance_ offices.

‘How well did you know Ben Solo?’ Rey asked abruptly.

Dopheld chuckled nervously and scratched his head. ‘I spoke to him a bit, but mostly because I managed his client accounts.’

‘So you have his cell?’

‘I don’t think so, it’s been a while,’ he murmured, though he took his cell phone from his jacket pocket anyway and began to flick through the contacts. Eventually he shook his head. ‘Sorry.’

Rey bit down on her lip, wondering why she was stupid enough not to take his number and put hers into his phone.

‘You don’t happen to know where he lives?’

‘You’re starting to sound like you’re going to stalk him,’ Dopheld answered, only slightly worried as he looked at Rey.

Eventually Kaydel hurried through the office in her coat and stopped in front of them both. ‘What’s with the expression?’ she asked Rey.

Rey had been grimacing, chewing on her bottom lip until it was red and slightly swollen.

‘She doesn’t have Ben’s number,’ Dopheld said with a shrug, and Rey realised that Kaydel hadn’t told him a thing.

‘Oh, oh no that’s not good,’ Kaydel murmured aloud. She reached for Dopheld’s arm and began to pull him. ‘Don’t worry Rey, we’ll do some digging,’ and she dragged him the rest of the way out of the office.

Rey sighed, sitting at her desk and trying not to think about the fact that she might never see Ben again. Not when the thought was wholly unsettling.

 

As the week passed and she still heard nothing from Ben, Rey finally resolved herself to acceptance, much to Kaydel’s complete disbelief. She’d tried to convince her friend to at least drop him a message on Twitter, and Rey had almost shouted at her. He had her work number, he could have called. He knew exactly where she was, but she didn’t know where he was.

Every morning when she got dressed, the fading bruises against her torso were a cruel reminder that perhaps she had been wrong to agree to sleeping with him at all.

What Rey hadn’t expected was despite only knowing Ben Solo for a day, she found it harder to get over his memory than Armitage’s, and the thought kept her up all of the weekend, willing herself to fight through any tears. There was no use in tears over nothing but a one night stand.

**XxX**

Things moved unreasonably quickly for Ben as soon as he had left the _First Order_ offices. He’d barely been at home for thirty minutes before the news had breached the office (most likely from someone who’d seen him leave) and his _First Order_ clients were asking him what now.

It was after a brief conversation with his mother that he figured that all he needed was capital to get him off his feet, and his skills meant he had a reasonable amount of that tucked away. By the time 5:00pm had rolled around, Ben had secured himself an office space in Chelsea, fortuitously close to _Resistance_ , and had a meeting with his lawyer and accountant on Monday to work over licenses and fees.

Rey’s card took residence on his nightstand and he sent her an email before he went to bed that Friday, apologising for not leaving his number with her earlier.

Ben didn’t expect a reply over the weekend, hoping that Rey would rather have fun than check her work emails, though as Monday morning passed and no reply came, no phone call or text, he felt anxious that he’d misunderstood her completely.

By Monday afternoon, when he’d signed the correct forms to register his business, he hadn’t kept his eyes off his phone for more than five minutes.

When his cell phone did eventually ring on Tuesday morning, he picked it up without glancing at the caller ID and was surprised to hear Finn on the other side.

‘I’ll be at Penn Station in fifteen, meet me there.’ Finn said.

Finn looked clearly out of place outside the large entryway, his hands in his bomber jacket and a patient smile on his face. When he eventually saw Ben, he grinned and approached, pulling him into a warm hug.

‘What are you doing here?’ Ben asked, eventually pulling back.

‘Splitting with _First Order_ and signing with you, obviously,’ he grinned.

Ben didn’t know what to say for a moment, just staring at his friend with raised brows.

‘Did you think I wouldn’t?’ Finn asked curiously, scratching at his stubbled chin.

‘I guess so,’ Ben murmured.

Finn rolled his eyes and started walking, Ben under the impression that he had no idea where he was going but following his friend anyway.

**XxX**

When Friday eventually came, and Finn (along with several others) was officially no longer a part of the _First Order_ , Ben came to the conclusion that perhaps Rey really never wanted to see him again. He hesitated to email her again, wondering what her response would be if it was unwelcome. The idea of cornering her with a phone call made him anxious, and all the habits that he’d been ridding himself of over the years, began to try and make a comeback.

In the end, he decided to throw himself into starting up his agency. Into arranging his office and finalising contracts. Poe had been at his door by the next Monday, carrying a box full of ridiculous objects for ‘his’ desk. He’d then placed a flowering orchid into Ben’s hands and arranged himself at a free desk in the corner of the relatively small space.

The Calrissian contract was still with Ben. He’d wanted to give the signed contract directly to Rey, and he still did. Even if she didn’t want to see him, he would do as he’d promised. It only took a week for the contract to be amended by the Calrissian’s to read as:

_Agreement made this 10th day of June 2019 between Calrissian Enterprises of 47 Socorro Street, Alexandria, Virginia for themselves and their successors and assigns of the one part and Finn Abrams, ℅ Skywalker Sports Agency of 100 W 25th Street, New York, New York for themselves and their successors and assigns of the other part._

Finn came back up to New York to sign, along with agreeing on the final details hovering over his contract with the Washington Wizards, and Ben set out on a Wednesday morning, almost three weeks since he’d last seen Rey, with the signed Calrissian contract sealed in a manila envelope.

The walk to _Resistance_ was short, yet it filled Ben with some semblance of relief. He was desperate to see Rey again and even if this might be the last time, at least that single wish could be granted.

The building receptionist let Ben up to the fifth floor with a visitor’s pass and he nervously held the yellow envelope in his damp hands as he waited in the elevator. The receptionist for _Resistance_ smiled kindly up at him, though he seemed distracted with his own thoughts.

‘I’m looking for Rey?’ Ben questioned, his voice low. ‘I have a contract for her.’

The young man nodded and glancing at the visitor’s pass, pressed the release on the door and it swung open.

‘The desks are named. She’s in the aisle, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find.’

Ben was ready to walk through when the man stopped him, holding out a bowl of chocolates.

‘Hershey’s Kiss?’

He wasn’t sure what made him do it, but Ben took up a handful and continued through the door. His eyes glanced around the half-empty office, looking for Rey’s name, with his palm full of chocolate, and it held stretched out in front of him.

By the time he reached it, he realised that she wasn’t there, and as neither her coat nor bag were anywhere to be seen, Ben assumed that she had left the office. He was supremely dejected by that fact and he stared at the empty seat for longer than he should have.

There was a woman who was typing a few desks away. Lisa. Her name was brandished on the small division between the desks, and she glanced up at him, smiled then looked away again.

‘Hey, I’m just...I’m just going to leave this for Rey?’ Ben called over to her.

She nodded and put her thumbs up.

Ben looked over the desk quickly, pulling a square piece of note paper from a small dispenser and taking a pen up from Rey’s desk. He hesitated on what to write for a moment, starting with an awkward ‘Hi Rey’ and then the words slowly came to him.

Tucking the note into the manila envelope, he left it on her desk beside her keyboard, and dumped the small pile of Hershey’s kisses he had procured on the opposite side. Ben took one last sweep of the office before he turned back down where he’d come from, hoping by divine providence that he’d see Rey before he left the building completely.

**XxX**

‘You okay?’ Kaydel asked, her arm tucked through Rey’s as they ascended in the elevator.

Rey nodded absently, smiling briefly before looking back at the metal doors. ‘Just a little tired,’ she said.

‘You should have some chamomile before bed. I have some in my drawer that you can take home.’

‘I like it when you baby me,’ Rey chuckled, her head resting against Kaydel’s shoulder.

Kaydel grinned and stroked Rey’s hair softly, cooing gently. ‘Well I still consider you my first born,’ she answered. The pair of them walked exited the elevator and entered the office, briefly greeting Bobby the receptionist, and then taking a leisurely stroll back to their desks.

‘You should have come with us Lisa, the cheesecake was simply divine,’ Kaydel groaned as she sat, peering briefly over at the intern before she did so.

‘I can tell you something else that was divine,’ Lisa said simply.

Kaydel’s ears perked and she forced herself out of her chair again, and knelt on it to look over at Lisa, a quirk in her brow. ‘Now what’s that I hear?’

Rey was too busy looking at the pile of chocolates and the manila envelope on her desk. She’d told Bobby before to stop leaving her chocolates, so their presence only irritated her as she pulled on the chord holding the package closed.

‘Some guy in the most beautifully fitted Tom Ford suit. He must have been about 6’4, and his hair, wow I almost forgot to mention his hair. And his lips. It took a lot out of me just to keep a straight face, I couldn’t even say a word.’

Kaydel was bouncing excitedly on her chair now, wondering who the mysterious visitor was.

‘What’d he want?’

Rey slipped her hands into the envelope, pulling out the contracts and she read over the top line briefly, before she let out a breath filled with relief. Finn had finally signed the contracts, though as she looked over them again, Rey noticed that _Skywalker Sports Agency_ was there instead of _First Order_.

Lisa was jutting her chin towards Rey, gesturing that the man had wanted her. Kaydel swivelled in her chair, watching as Rey tucked paper back into an envelope, and set it in the top drawer of her desk.

‘Secret admirer?’ Kaydel questioned.

‘Just some contracts, must have been Bobby or a bike messenger that dropped it.’

‘I don’t think—,’ Lisa started, but Kaydel shook her head quickly, watching Rey carefully.

Kaydel wasn’t entirely sure how to handle the situation, mostly due to the fact that she knew that Rey felt like she was obligated to forget about Ben Solo. He’d been something that felt right to her and that had fallen apart, and Kaydel, as her best friend, wasn’t exactly sure how to navigate that.

If it had been Ben Solo who’d personally come to hand her the Calrissian contracts, then what did that even mean? Was he just being an asshole, or had he come with the intention of seeing her? But then there’d been no note, or else Rey’s reaction would have been far more dramatic than it was.

Kaydel continued to mull over the correct way to go about broaching the subject, deciding that once Rey was loaded with a few drinks, she’d at least be more relaxed, at least she hoped.

As was usual for them on Wednesday nights, Kaydel, Dopheld and Rey made their way over to Floyd's for a drink and a viewing of whatever game was on that night. It was the women’s Fifa World Cup, so they all got comfortable in their usual booth, Dopheld and Rey happily drinking their fill of beer, while the disgruntled Kaydel cradled a cranberry juice as they waited for the Russia vs Spain match to begin.

Rey glanced at the couple across from her, distracted from the TV momentarily as Dopheld made a mess of his ketchup and Kaydel wiped his chin with her thumb. She turned the pint glass in her hands, wondering if the alcohol would help her move on. Rey dipped several fries into the container of ketchup and drank back more of her beer. Her eyes fell on the other TV behind their booth, which featured some sort of pre-NBA draft conference where they were carrying out interviews.

The three of them watched for a moment, long enough to spot the name that drew across the screen for the next interviewee. His thick beard was peppered with grey and his piercing blue eyes stuck out against the dark background behind him.

‘Skywalker?’ Rey murmured, mostly to herself.

Dopheld nodded, grabbing for several fries. ‘Owner of the Chandrila Jaguars. He was head coach up until a few years ago.’

‘What kind of owner coaches the team they own?’

He shrugged. ‘I suppose it was always his baby. He played for the Wizards back in the day, took to coaching in his own complex and then set up the Jaguars when the G-League first started out and I guess he didn’t want to stop coaching.’

Rey frowned, drinking back more of her beer as she watched the man on the screen. She’d seen him in most, if not all of the pictures that had lined the walls in the Chandrila Jaguars’ sports complex. After spending several more minutes watching the man’s mouth move, but not hearing his voice, she exhaled noisily, attracting the attention of her two friends.

‘He was Ben’s coach?’

Dopheld nodded, though he was reluctant to due to Kaydel’s death glare from beside him.

‘And Ben’s uncle?’

‘Oh, I forgot about that,’ Dopheld said far too casually for Rey’s good.

It only took Kaydel a quick covert google under the table to find that Luke Skywalker was the twin brother to Senator Leia Organa, who was most definitely married to Han Solo, Ben’s father.

Rey swallowed, staring at Ben’s uncle on the screen, unaware of Kaydel’s researching. Skywalker Sports Agency. That’s what the contract had said. Why hadn’t she turned it over and seen who had signed on the back?

‘I’ve got to go,’ Rey said suddenly, turning her wrist to look at her watch. It wasn’t late, the office would still be open.

‘Where?’ Kaydel asked, her brow furrowing.

‘I forgot something at the office, I’ll be back soon.’

She slid out of the booth and took off, finding herself half running to get back to her office, and to her desk where the contract had been sitting for hours now.

The elevator ride felt tortuously long, and Rey almost screamed in frustration as she struggled with the office’s security door. The office was empty, though the lights remained on, and she hurried to her desk, opening her drawer and removing the envelope.

Rey closed her eyes, wondering what she was doing, why she was putting herself through this just to see his signature on a contract. What good would that do for her?

Unwinding the string again, she flicked open the top and pulled the contract fully out, barely registering a note fluttering to the ground beside her. Her eyes perused the contract as she knelt and blindly reached for the small square piece of paper, thinking it had most likely attached itself to the envelope from her desk, as it was from her own stationary set.

There it was. His signature, his name clear despite his penmanship and Rey sighed, breathing out heavily as her eyes followed the loops of his name. Her eyes stung, and she put the contract back down onto her desk, taking up the note beside her and looking at it with a sigh.

Then she froze, her eyes on the first two words in that same neat handwriting. _Hi Rey._ Rey barely remembered to breathe as her eyes crossed the expanse of words:

 

_Hi Rey,_

_I promised I’d get you this and I’m sorry I didn’t get to see you._

_I can’t hate you for not wanting to talk to me, or even see me, but thank you for that day._

_Those twenty-four hours changed a lot of things for me and even if I couldn’t have you for more than that one night, I can’t say I regret it._

_I hope that one day someone else can make you feel like I felt—like that day could have been our everyday._

_-Ben_

 

His number was scrawled neatly on the back of the note as a final request to her and Rey didn’t know what to do next as her eyes passed over his sentences several more times.

He thought she had ignored him? She didn’t even have his number or email.

Then her shaking hands were reaching into her bag for her cell-phone and she brought up her email app, typing _Ben_ in the search bar, and there it was. A single email, unread and addressed to her weeks ago:

 

_I’m an idiot. I didn’t give you my number and I’ve left the First Order, so maybe don’t try calling them looking for me? It’s not a long story, but I’d prefer to tell you face to face._

_And can I just emphasise how much I want to see your face._

_I know you probably won’t see this until Monday considering it’s 1AM right now, but here’s my number, so please please (!) see me at your earliest convenience._

_Yours,_

_Ben_

_917-469-0782_

 

Rey felt like crying. Mostly from relief, because she hadn’t been imagining this whole thing since that night. Then it turned to guilt, because she hadn’t been more thorough when she had checked her emails, wholly distracted by her supposed rejection. She should have known that if he didn’t call that he would email her.

She swiped away her email app and clicked the dial pad, her thumbs slowly entering the numbers, her eyes triple checking that she had got it right before she pressed the green call button.

The phone rang exactly five times before he picked up, followed by the sound of cars driving by in the background.

‘Hello?’

Rey closed her eyes, feeling her chest ache as she heard his voice for the first time in weeks.

**XxX**

‘Ben?’

Ben stopped walking, frozen on the sidewalk outside the building that housed his office. A couple knocked into him, surprised by him stopping suddenly, and they grumbled, walking around him.

‘Rey?’ He sucked in a breath.

She didn’t respond and then Ben heard her sniffling and he repeated her name again, it slipping so easily from his tongue. As if it belonged solely to him.

‘You idiot,’ she murmured. ‘Why didn’t you email me again?’

Ben huffed, barely able to contain his complete elation that Rey was calling him, and she was annoyed at him. ‘I thought you just didn’t want to see me,’ he responded honestly. ‘I thought you were trying to give me a hint.’

‘I called your office and they said you didn’t work there anymore. I thought you’d skipped town just to avoid me.’

He laughed then, cradling the phone in two hands against his ear. ‘You really think I’d do that?’

‘I don’t know.’ Ben could hear her rub her nose and sniffle again. ‘I don’t know anything anymore.’

‘Rey,’ Ben spoke her name again, softly, as if it could take the place of him holding her closely.

‘Ben?’

Ben sighed, feeling almost light headed. ‘Where are you?’

‘I went back to my office—,’ she started, but Ben swiftly interrupted her.

‘Wait outside, I’ll be there soon.’

And then he started running, knowing that it had been a good idea to lease an office in Chelsea.

**XxX**

Rey tried to rein in her frown as the call dropped and she was left at her desk, the contracts scattered across its expanse. She managed to shakily pile them up and slip them into her drawer again, before her legs took her through the office and to the elevators. When they took too long, she impatiently pushed on the doors to the stairs, and hurried down them.

Managing to hold onto her fading calmness for a moment more when she finally reached the lobby, she offered the lone security guard a smile goodbye and then hurried through the revolving doors, her grin so wide that it hurt.

Her eyes traced up and down the street to catch a glimpse of Ben, and she bounced from one sneaker to the other.  

After what must have been thirty seconds, she eventually saw him jogging down the street, his jacket open and blowing behind him as he ran. Rey grinned as she watched him approach, leaning up from the pillar she had been putting her weight on, and walking towards his incoming figure.

Ben skidded to a stop in front of her, leaving Rey only enough time to inhale once before he pulled her tightly to him, squeezing until she began to giggle and squirm as her feet lifted from the pavement in his grip.

‘How far did you just run?’ she questioned, her own arms wrapping around his neck.

‘Doesn’t matter,’ he managed through several breaths.

He put her down and Rey took a step back, taking him all in. From the dark waves of his hair, fully jostled from his run and longer than when she’d last seen him. Then to his whiskey-coloured eyes, his crooked smile set against those unforgettably plush, red lips. His chest was heaving, and Rey chuckled again, still not quite believing that he was standing in front of her again.

When she met his eyes once more, she could see that he was watching her carefully.

‘You cut your hair?’ he questioned.

Rey laughed again, her fingers reaching to the tips of her hair which now barely grazed her shoulders. ‘You didn’t cut yours.’

‘I missed you,’ he murmured. ‘I missed you every day.’

She nodded, smiling. ‘Me too.’

He cleared the gap between them, his hands cupping her cheeks gently, thumbs rubbing at her softly flushed skin, his smile wide. Their foreheads fell together, and Rey closed her eyes, relishing in the feeling of him being in front of her, of his breath fanning against her nose.

Lips met warmly, their smiles caught up in the action and Rey happily tucked her arms into the gaps in between his jacket and his waist.

‘It’s probably best that I don’t let you go this time, isn’t it?’ Ben murmured when they broke apart.

Rey grinned and nodded, holding onto him resolutely. She frowned then, seemingly worried. ‘Were you in the middle of something else?’

‘You’re not trying to chase me away, are you?’ He questioned.

She chuckled and shook her head. ‘Well you’re all important now, in your fancy suit and everything.’

‘The last time you saw me I was in a suit too,’ he responded, smiling widely.

Rey shrugged as if her question still stood. As if Ben could possibly have somewhere more important to be than with her outside of her office.

‘I’m where I should be.’

She grinned, her arms tightening around his middle as she looked up at him. ‘I just left my friends in Floyd’s. Do you want to go?’

Rey didn’t wait for him to nod, she just began walking back to the bar, holding onto Ben’s hand with a solid grip, not wanting to let him get out of her sight.

Kaydel and Dopheld were talking animatedly, seeming to have gotten onto their second basket of fries when Rey and Ben had walked in. Kaydel spotted them first and the vestiges of fried potato almost fell out of her mouth and onto the table. Dopheld followed her sight and got up, seemingly rather excited.

‘Dopheld?’ Ben said first, smiling widely at the accountant.

The two shared a hand shake and Rey went to the empty side of the booth, directly facing Kaydel who looked from Ben to her continuously.

‘Is that Ben?’ she mouthed.

Rey merely smiled, and Kaydel grinned in return.

‘This is Kaydel, my best friend and sidekick in all things sports advertising adjacent. You know Dopheld.’ Rey said, gesturing to the two who sat across from them.

‘I’ll get us some more drinks,’ Dopheld said, getting up quickly.

Kaydel’s eyes followed him briefly, before she looked back at the two of them, her eyes narrowing and her hands twisting the glass of cranberry juice in front of her.

‘Three weeks?’ The almost question was directed at Ben and the tone was clearly meant to be threatening. Rey chuckled behind her hand, expecting Kaydel to interrogate Ben. ‘I suppose distance does indeed make the heart grow fonder. Impressive work.’

Rey blinked, somewhat offended as Kaydel began to laugh.

Ben just looked guilty.

‘So you were in our office today? Lisa’s description of you was quite accurate.

‘Wait, you knew he’d been there?’

‘I speculated,’ Kaydel responded. ‘You didn’t exactly describe his face?’

Ben barely suppressed a chuckle. ‘What did you describe?’

‘Please do not set her off, Ben,’ Rey groaned.

When Dopheld came back at that moment with three beers and another cranberry juice, Rey hadn’t been more thankful to see him, and she happily took the fresh beverage.

Rey tucked her arm through Ben’s, sipping her beer and reaching for one of Kaydel and Dopheld’s fries. The four of them spoke easily, mostly about what Ben had been doing for the last three weeks, supremely impressed that he’d managed to do so much in such a short amount of time.

They parted ways at nine, Kaydel too tired to stay out any longer and the married couple left Ben and Rey outside of the bar as they slid into a taxi.

Their fingers were comfortably joined together and Rey hummed happily to herself as they watched the yellow cab climb the street.

‘Do you want to go to mine?’ Ben asked, smiling when Rey met his gaze.

She nodded, and they started to walk, comfortably attached to each other. Rey’s arm folded through his.

‘I spoke to my uncle.’ Ben said eventually, his voice low and his eyes on the path ahead of them.

Rey glanced at him, seeing the tightness in his jaw. ‘Yeah?’

‘Well I called him. I didn’t go and see him.’

Rey chuckled, but nodded. ‘Did it help?’

‘A little. I think I’ve been killing him a little more each day and I at least feel bad about that.’

‘Well I’m glad that you’ve stopped doing that.’  

‘Me too.’

Rey rested her cheek against Ben’s shoulder, closing her eyes as they walked. ‘Are you going to remember to take my cell number this time?’ she asked as they wandered slowly.

Ben hummed in agreement and he stopped them both, removing his phone from his jacket pocket and bringing up his recent call list. Rey watched him select the empty box where her name would go and then he proceeded to type _Aurelia_ surrounded by blue hearts and a rated-18 emoji.

‘How old are you again?’ she questioned, rolling her eyes and pulling her arm from Ben’s.

He chuckled and his arm wrapped around her shoulders, pressing kisses against her temple as they began to walk again. Eventually she was laughing too and elbowing him to get away from her.

‘Maybe I should have left my memory of you in Washington,’ she said with a sigh, beginning to walk ahead. ‘If I had known that you were obsessed with emojis to this extent, I would have never slept with you.’

Ben grinned, slowing them down so he could meet her eyes. He was standing so close and leaning down low enough for their noses to almost touch. ‘I don’t believe that for a second.’ By the way that his hand had slid against Rey’s waist, she knew he was trying to get a rise out of her.

‘Is that so?’ she hummed, a smirk beginning to appear at the corner of her mouth. ‘Maybe I should just go home now, then?’ she considered aloud.

He was silent for a moment and then relented. ‘No, don’t do that.’

Rey laughed very loudly, and Ben sighed, knowing that she was laughing at him. ‘Has it been a very long three weeks?’ she asked, a hand cupping his cheek softly.

‘It truly has,’ he responded, putting on his most sympathetic voice.

‘Ah, then maybe I’ll reconsider coming over.’

As soon as the words left her mouth, Ben was grinning, and he bent down and proceeded to lift Rey onto his shoulder. He began to jog down the street until she was laughing too much to continue telling him to put her down.

When he eventually did, the two of them were out of breath, trying to hold back their laughter. Rey stopped abruptly and kissed him quickly, before pulling him in the general direction towards Fourteenth Street Station.

Ben caught up to her and they set a steady pace together, neither being able to miss how tightly their hands were clasped between them. Their smiles were louder than the city around them, and the two of them knew that the same could be said for tomorrow, the day after, and even the day after that.

They were the singular known quantity in the boundless unknown of their lives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm super tired for tidbits, but here we go:
> 
> \- I put this fic in May/June 2019, since why not look at the immediate future? Women's Football World Cup starts in June, peeps. Support your local sports WOMEN. You know the drill. 
> 
> \- Why CK One? I don't know. My cousin is obsessed with this stuff. Perfume gives me headaches or makes me sneeze. I unfortunately am a lost cause. 
> 
> \- The one thing I wish I'd been able to work in, was Rose. As well as more Finn, but that's how the cookie crumbles when you're writing a smaller fic. 
> 
> \- Chelsea is a neighbourhood in the West side of Manhattan. Tbh I think it's mostly residential properties, but I decided to have a couple offices there, since it's near Penn Station (and Macy's!!! you know, since Kaydel went their to get Rey knickers lmao). I did not choose my location as thoroughly as I usually do, so sorry to the folks who may live in Chelsea and may be hurt by my fics! One day I'll write a fic set in my own home town and won't have to research at all. SIGH.
> 
> \- Hershey's Kisses are weird, I do not endorse eating Hershey's chocolate. YUCK. Bobby is weird for loving them so much. It's super not obvious, but Bobby is basically BB-8. 
> 
> \- I made up Floyd's. Of course. It's a sports bar/irish pub type place, I guess. Food, drink and sport on multiple TVs. Tbh it's a British gastropub in the middle of Manhattan.
> 
> \- It's a mystery on whether Ben's number is real. I used a random NY cellphone number generator and used that. LMAO.
> 
> \- IDK. I liked the idea of Ben naming his agency 'Skywalker' as a means of separating himself from his basketball player-past and establishing himself as an agent in his own right. While his relationship with his uncle isn't fab right now, I also like to think of it as a small armistice for them both. It's also just a cool name. 
> 
> \- Blue heart in emoji language (LMAO) means unconditional love. I thought that was cute. 
> 
> I suppose there's nothing much else to say but THANKS FOR READING. If you have any questions or anything at all, just leave a comment, I guess!
> 
> UNTIL NEXT TIME KIDDOS.


End file.
